The Record

Auditorium to receive formal renaming

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In the wake of Tom Petters’ fraud conviction in Dec. 2009, the CSB/SJU administration has had to proceed into 2010 without several million dollars in pledged donations. As Petters faces sentencing in the upcoming weeks, his family’s name is being removed from its most notable campus location — what was formerly known as the Petters Auditorium.

On Dec. 8, CSB/SJU issued a press release stating it would change the name of the auditorium to the Escher Auditorium, after Sister Firmin Escher, OSB. Escher, who passed away in June, was a music professor at the school, a dean of fine arts, and a “key administrator when the BAC became a reality,” said Brian Jose, executive director of Fine Arts Programming.Escher was an obvious choice for the name change, according to administrators.

“I didn’t even have to think about it,” CSB President MaryAnn Baenninger said. “She just personified music at St. Ben’s.”

The college has a history of naming buildings after sisters.

“Because it was hard to deliberate through (these circumstances), the approach that was most fitting was the one we’d used before,” Baenninger said.

St. Ben’s discussed the name change with parents of Tom Petters, for whom the auditorium was originally named, before the change was announced.

“They understood why we wanted to honor Sister Firmin (Escher),” Baenninger said.

Baenninger said the Petters family continues to be an important part of the CSB/SJU community, and the name change was not meant to estrange them. For example, the Petters door in the Benedicta Arts Center, which was donated by Tom’s parents to the school, will continue to stand at the entrance of the auditorium.

“The Petters name is a very honored and respected name in this community, and continues to be,” Baenninger said. In this case, the circumstances forced us to make certain choices.”

There will be a formal renaming ceremony for the auditorium on Friday, Feb. 12. The ceremony will feature a perfor- mance of the Beethoven Triple Concerto. Prof. David Arnott will play Escher’s violin in the performance, and will be joined by Lucia Magney and Sofya Gulyak, a Russian pianist who was also the first woman to win the Leeds International Piano Competition.

“(Escher’s violin) is the violin equivalent of a Ferrari,” Arnott said in an e-mail. “It is certainly the best violin that I have ever played in my career.”

Jose says he is very pleased with the decision to recognize Escher. “(The renaming in honor of Escher) connects Fine Arts Programming to the history of our great college and monastery,” Jose said in an e-mail. “The vision of the sisters, and their commitment to the arts is extraordinary.”

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