Bates Recital Hall

At the heart of the Butler School of Music is a 700 seat hall designed specifically for musical performance. Because the hall's walls and ceiling are adjustable it is a flexible performance environment which can accommodate ensembles of all sizes and types. The Hall contains the magnificent Visser-Rowland Tracker Organ of 5,313 pipes and 4 manuals. Artists from across the world are featured on this instrument in the School's Great Organ Series.

Jessen Auditorium

A 300 seat hall ideally suited to chamber music, Jessen Auditorium's acoustics, central location, and rich history have made this structure an Austin classic for almost six decades. Ideally suited for chamber music, Jessen hosts a popular yearly concert series of faculty artists appropriately titled the Jessen Series of Distinguished Faculty Artists.

Recital Studio

Located on the ground floor of the music building north wing across and down the hall from the stage entrance to Bates Hall, the Recital Studio (MRH 2.608) is a multi-use facility designed for student recitals, concerts by small student ensembles, intimate master classes, studio and performance classes as well as lectures and classroom instruction, the 175 seat Recital Studio features a complete multimedia and presentation system as well as computerized lighting and sound system.

McCullough Theater

The College of Fine Arts' 400 seat proscenium stage theater was designed primarily as an opera laboratory theater. The Butler School of Music's Opera Theater presents three fully staged operas, one summer opera, and opera scenes in this space each year.

Bass Concert Hall

With 3,000 seats, the Performing Arts Center's Bass Concert Hall is Austin's preeminent performance hall and the primary venue for the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the Austin Lyric Opera, Broadway productions, dance productions, and distinguished artists in classical, popular, and jazz music.

Practice Rooms

Among its greatest assets, the school houses 130 soundproof practice modules, 60 of which are equipped with Steinway grand pianos and the rest house upright pianos, percussion equipment, or harps. Even at peak-use times, the number of available rooms in the Butler School of Music makes the scheduling of practice rooms unnecessary.

Rehearsal Rooms

In addition to eighteen classrooms, eight general use rehearsal rooms, teaching studios, faculty offices, and administrative offices, the Symphony Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Symphony Band, Longhorn Marching Band, Jazz Orchestra, Early Music Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble (and a complete steel drum band), five Choral Ensembles, and the Harp Ensemble all enjoy acoustically isolated rehearsal rooms.

Performance Library

The Butler School of Music Performance Library houses and maintains over 18,000 titles in the areas of choral, orchestral, concert band, jazz, opera, and chamber music. The library also maintains the Butler School of Music recording archive.  The library has a small collection of reference materials including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the BBC Music Library, and the Music In Print series.  These collections are available for in-library use by Butler School of Music students, faculty, staff.

The Performance Library maintains a professional relationship with all Fine Arts, Orchestral, Private and Commercial libraries throughout the nation. The library does not participate directly with interlibrary loans, but does provide information on music available elsewhere.

The Performance Library prepares music for the school's large performing ensembles (2 orchestras, 3 concert bands, 6 choirs, 4 jazz bands, 6 large chamber ensembles), which give a total of 70-80 individual concert programs each season, along with 2 to 3 opera productions.

Patrons of the library can search the holdings via computer on the World Wide Web. All collections of the library are closed stacks with the exception of the chamber music collection, which patrons can peruse. The library maintains a reference file with one octavo of all choral titles housed in the library as a means for helping patrons in their search. Because the collections are closed stacks, patrons make requests in writing.  Requests placed in the morning are filled in the afternoon and requests placed in the afternoon are filled the next morning. 

The library is open 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Policies of the library and information about the collections are posted at the entrance of the library. Current students and faculty of the university may check out music from the library.

Fine Arts Library

The Fine Arts Library (FAL), a unit of the General Libraries, opened July 16, 1979. The library contains the art and music collections and most of the General Libraries theater and dance materials. Its collections support research and instruction in the College of Fine Arts which includes the Butler School of Music, the Departments of Art and Art History, and Theatre and Dance. The Fine Arts Library collection includes approximately 300,000 books and scores, 900 current serial subscriptions, 38,000 phonodiscs, over 15,000 compact discs, 2,800 video cassettes and videodiscs, 4,500 reels of microfilm, and 24,000 microfiche. Access to electronic information is provided via the General Libraries Information Stations through UT Library Online stations, and UTCAT terminals.

The Music collection supports instruction and research in the Butler School of Music which includes applied music, composition, ethnomusicology, music education, music theory, and musicology. Most historical periods and geographical areas are covered in both classical and popular idioms, though the emphasis is on the western classical tradition. Music is represented in a wide variety of printed and recorded formats. There are other music collections at The University of Texas at Austin. Latin American music is collected at the Benson Latin American Collection.

Recording Studio

UT is equipped with a state-of-the-art 24-track professional recording studio which records student, faculty, and guest artists in concert at any of the School's halls or in many of the rehearsal rooms.

• Student Recitals and Audition Recordings
• Faculty Recitals and Special Projects
• Performance Recording
• Duplication

Keyboards and other Instruments

UT is proud to own over 300 pianos, including 140 grand pianos (of which 127 are Steinway grands and 11 are Steinway Concert D grands). In addition to the Visser-Rowland performance organ, the school owns one large teaching organ, 4 harpsichords, and one fortepiano. The instrument inventory numbers 1,000 items, including string, wind, early music instruments, ethnomusicology instruments, harps, and percussion equipment.

Electronic Music Studios

The Electronic Music Studios are among the best-equipped and technologically advanced of any university in the country. There are four studios devoted exclusively to electro-acoustic music.

CASA Vocal Arts Lab

Expanding the knowledge of the singing voice with digital precision, the Vocal Arts Lab with the support of the Center for Advanced Study of the Arts (CASA) is applying interactive technology to help vocal students improve their instrument by literally "seeing" their voices.

Microcomputer Laboratory

The Music Microcomputer Lab is designed to support the unique computing needs of music students. The MML provides computer hardware, software, and, most importantly, quality instruction to the students of the Butler School of Music.

Ongoing training of the lab proctors ensures that students receive "on the spot" assistance whenever they encounter difficulties in the lab. In addition, frequent one-on-one and group training sessions are provided by the lab director for students interested learning new skills.