USM receives $10 million gift for new music school at planned Portland arts center
Rendering / Courtesy, University of Southern Maine
The Dr. Alfred and D. Suzi Osher School of Music at the University of Southern Maine will be based at a planned Center for the Arts at USM's Portland campus that could break ground by spring 2023. It would include a dance studio similar to the one shown in this rendering.
The University of Southern Maine on Tuesday announced a $10 million gift to build a new Portland home for its School of Music, from philanthropist, music enthusiast and longtime supporter Suzi Osher.
USM said it will use the largest-ever gift in USM Foundation history to move the school's academic and performance music programs from its Gorham campus to a prominent location at the heart of its Portland campus. There, the planned Center for the Arts that could break ground by spring 2023.
In honor of the donor and her late husband, the School of Music will be called the Dr. Alfred and D. Suzi Osher School of Music at the University of Southern Maine.
“The School of Music is one of USM’s signature programs of excellence and it’s also one of our best-kept secrets,” said USM President Glenn Cummings. “Suzi Osher’s gift, in combination with a $5 million gift from the Crewe Foundation earlier this summer, will help ensure that the long-held dream of a new Center for the Arts becomes a reality — and the outstanding School of Music is a secret no more.”
Cummings was referring to a recent $5 million donation from the Cumberland Foreside-based legacy foundation of the late singer, songwriter and music producer Bob Crewe. Crewe discovered and co-wrote many chart-topping songs for The Four Seasons in the 1960s including "Walk Like a Man" and "Rag Doll." He died seven years ago in Scarborough.
Corey Hascall, a 1999 USM graduate who serves as vice president of the USM Foundation, told Mainebiz that the total project cost of the Center for the Arts is estimated between $38 million and $42 million.
She also said the foundation is working with architects at Pfeiffer, a design firm with offices in New York and Los Angeles, to nail down the cost of the project's next phase. Pfeiffer's extensive arts portfolio includes the Gonzaga University Myrtle Woldson Performing Arts Center in Spokane, Wash., and the University of Southern California Glorya Kaufman International Dance Center in Los Angeles.
Next milestone for USM planned arts center
On Oct. 27, the USM Foundation will ask a University of Maine System Board of Trustees committee for spending approval to proceed with design development and contract documents, Hascall said.
"Their authorization will allow USM to create a shovel-ready project for the trustees' final review and approval," she added.
Suzi Osher, a lifelong patron of the arts and USM supporter, grew up in Biddeford and developed an early love of the piano, thanks to childhood lessons, and remembers playing the instrument at a local music store at age 10. She has supported the arts through initiatives including the Dr. Alfred Osher and D. Suzi Osher Scholarship and launching the Gorham-based arts planning project, which evolved a decade later into the current plan for the Portland campus.
“Music has always been my passion,” Suzi Osher said in Tuesday's news release. “I am honored to support USM’s School of Music in enriching the education and lives of students and the community. I know my late husband, Alfred, would be proud to have his name attached to such an outstanding program at the University.”
Alfred Osher was an oral surgeon in Biddeford and Maine's first board-certified orthodontist. Suzi Osher managed the office and later studied to be an orthodontist assistant, and the couple traveled extensively during their life together.
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That is a generational gift.
Good for her and Good for USM.
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