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California Institute of the Arts

Music Facilities

Spaces for making and performing

Indoor laboratory with people interacting with various monitors and technical equipment.

Students at The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts have ample space and opportunity to create and explore.

Outdoor spaces and lounges provide peaceful environments for inspiration, practice, and musical discussion, while cutting-edge studios and labs offer opportunities to compose, record, and refine your sonic experimentations. Our spaces encourage students to explore new ideas, experiment with different styles, and engage in interdisciplinary collaborations across various musical genres and artistic fields.

Wild Beast

Christened in the spring of 2010, the Wild Beast is CalArts’ variable-use, indoor-outdoor music pavilion. Named in honor of the seminal work of composer Morton Feldman—who used the term “wild beast” as a metaphor for the ineffable generative force in art—the pavilion houses a highly flexible performance and rehearsal space that allows The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts to better serve its growing student population and present more public concerts. Designed by the Culver City architectural firm Hodgetts + Fung, the 3,200-square-foot structure seats 100 when closed; its open-air band-shell configuration accommodates an audience of more than 750.

Roy O. Disney Concert Hall

Many on-campus performances take place in the Roy O. Disney Concert Hall (ROD), a multipurpose space with adaptable acoustics, lighting, and sound features. The ROD supports traditional recitals and concerts as well as multimedia and other experimental presentations. The space also doubles as a live recording room, equipped with its own assortment of recording-quality microphones and gear.

Instrument Studios

African Drum Room

The African Drum Room contains an extensive instrument and costume collection for intensive study of polyrhythmic music and dance from Africa’s Ghanaian region. Visiting artists teach repertoires from many African cultures. Students are immersed in performance, theory, transcription, and analysis and gain practical skills for maintaining, repairing, and tuning instruments.

Gamelan Room

Balinese and Javanese Music and Dance provide a comprehensive exploration. Players learn in small groups, working closely with world-renowned faculty and a full instrument collection, studying traditional and contemporary works. Students also a gain cultural understanding of the many roles gamelan music plays in Indonesian life.

Tabla Room

Focusing heavily on vocalization and syllable recitation, students study North Indian classical music holistically, building advanced technical skills with ragas, talas, sruti, and microtones. Students are immersed in performance, theory, transcription, and analysis to gain practical skills for maintaining, repairing, and tuning instruments.

REDCAT

REDCAT is CalArts’ downtown Los Angeles center for the presentation of innovative performing, visual, and media arts. Qualified music students are invited to perform here alongsidefaculty and visiting artists. Besides music performances, REDCAT’s eclectic programming allows all CalArts students to experience a wide range of experimental work by a mix of emerging artists and internationally renowned practitioners.

  • CalArts’ Main Gallery

    The Main Gallery is a large open Institute space that provides a venue for rehearsals, performances, and installations.

    A circle of seven pianos in the main gallery at CalArts. Students look on from the balcony.

  • Walt Disney Modular Theater

    Shared among the Institute’s schools, the Walt Disney Modular Theater (MOD) is a vast black-box theater which provides a venue for major operatic, world music, and other ensemble performances. It possesses a variable architecture that supports an unlimited range of stage and audience configurations.

    Actors performing on a stage with an angelic figure in a golden archway and a large projected image in the backdrop.

  • A300

    This teaching/performance space provides an outstanding venue for small and medium-sized ensembles.

    A student plays a cello in the center of a large practice room. Other students look on.

  • WaveCave

    The WaveCave is a venue for music students to develop and exhibit interactive sound installations, video installations, interactive workshops, listening sessions, and all forms of sound art and sculpture.

    A person sits with a guitar and a microphone in a small room while a small group of people watch

  • Practice Rooms

    The Herb Alpert School of Music has more than 25 practice rooms, many with pianos, including designated rooms for piano and percussion majors. All rooms are available 24 hours a day during the academic year.

    A person plays the piano in a small room with blue walls.

  • Machine Lab

    The core space for the creation of new mechatronic compositions and instruments in the Music Technology: Interaction, Intelligence & Design (MTIID) specialization. 

    Indoor laboratory with people interacting with various monitors and technical equipment.

  • Electronic Studios

    Reflecting the School of Music’s longstanding reputation as a leader in the applications of technology to music, our electronic studios provide extensive state-of-the-art facilities for music synthesis, electronic composition, film/video scoring, digital recording, editing, processing and mixing, work with multimedia and telecommunications, and development of custom software and hardware. The studios are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the academic year.

    A sound board connected to many different colored wires

Instruments

CalArts maintains a sizable collection that features 50 pianos, two harpsichords, an organ and a celesta; two harps; various string, woodwind, brass, and early European instruments; numerous orchestral and nontraditional percussion instruments; Balinese and Javanese gamelans; African drum ensembles; and sarods, sitars, tablas, and other Indian instruments.