Contributed by Marla Taylor
For the past two years, the Peabody has been dealing with an endlessly noisy neighbor. Falls Music Center, a new home for music at Phillips Academy, has been under construction since early 2023.
The noise started early in construction as a massive mountain of dirt was excavated from the building site. Next came the drilling for the geothermal wells. We could feel the vibrations in the ground as the wells reached 500 feet deep in an effort to maintain PA’s commitment to sustainability. Alas, despite our repeated (yet playful) requests, we were not allowed to sift through the back dirt to look for pieces of Phillips Academy history.
Over the next months, the building rose behind us and carried all the sounds of construction as the steel frame went up and carefully crafted practice and performance spaces were built. Most spaces within Falls Music Center are acoustically separated to isolate noises and capture the most “live” sound possible. The sounds were a constant background to much of our work moving back into the Peabody after our building project.
My favorite discovery during the construction was that the window in the main stairwell of the Peabody looks directly into the glass stairwell of the Falls Music Center. I have to admit that more than once I tried to wave at the construction workers. Unfortunately, no one waved back.
Towards the end of 2024 the fences around Falls Music Center came down, the sidewalks were repaved, the grounds were cleaned up, and the sounds diminished. I can’t say that we have missed them, but we definitely notice their absence.
Now, Falls Music Center is open to students and I look forward to a new type of noise – the stray notes from the incredible student musicians and sound of increased student presence in our little corner of PA.
The Peabody 