The University of Notre Dame has received a significant gift from a trustee and his wife for the Chris and Anne Reyes Organ and Choral Hall in the Marie P. DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts.p. Elected a trustee last June, Reyes is chairman of Reyes Holdings, L.L.C., a Rosemont, Ill.-based beverage and food distributor.
“I consider my selection as a trustee a tremendous honor and embrace the opportunity to be associated more closely with Notre Dame, as well as to help enhance the University’s growing commitment to the performing arts,” Reyes said. “Anne and I are thrilled that our benefaction will allow us to give something back to such a wonderful institution.”
The 100-seat organ and choral hall has been designed to showcase a new, handcrafted pipe organ. Its three-story interior calls to mind a neo-classical chapel and lends itself equally well to recitals and to the celebration of Mass.
“This performance space— especially notable for the way in which it unites Notre Dame’s commitment to the performing arts and its Catholic character— will quickly become the centerpiece of the University’s programs in sacred and liturgical music,” said John Haynes, Judd and Mary Lou Leighton Director of the Performing Arts and executive director of the DeBartolo Center. “The hall soars more than 75 feet from floor to ceiling and has been designed not merely to be beautiful, but also to provide the perfect acoustical chamber for its spectacular new musical instrument.”
Reyes, a resident of Lake Forest, Ill., previously served on the advisory council for Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. A 1975 graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in finance and economics, he is a member of the board of directors of Lake Forest Bank&Trust, Wintrust Financial Corporation, Children’s Memorial Hospital, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Chicago. He also is an active member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Chicago-area Young Presidents Organization.
Scheduled to open in the fall, the $63.6-million, 150,000-square-foot DeBartolo Center will be home to the University’s Department of Film, Television and Theatre and also will house the 900-seat Leighton Concert Hall, underwritten by South Bend civic leader and philanthropist Judd Leighton and his late wife, Mary Lou; the 350-seat Patricia George Decio Theatre, underwritten by Notre Dame Trustee Arthur J. Decio in honor of his wife; the 100-seat Regis Philbin Studio Theatre, underwritten by the popular television host and 1953 Notre Dame graduate; and a 200-seat THX-equipped cinema theater, underwritten by the family of Michael G. Browning, a 1968 graduate.
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