With a roast and toasts, alumni, colleagues honor Dean Hall’s golden anniversary

Music was literally in the air and definitely in the hearts of some 500 alumni who attended the recent celebration honoring Dean William D.  Hall’s 50^th anniversary at Chapman University. Catch a glimpse of the festivities in this Chapman Magazine video.

The January event included a happy hour roast and a Saturday morning “Back to Choir” rehearsal, where alumni filled the John and Donna Crean Orchestral Hall to be once again under the guiding baton of Dean Hall. The festivities were capped off with a gala dinner, where the alumni performed and it was announced that the Conservatory of Music Dean Hall helped build was being named in his honor, thanks to the generosity of Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco.

“Our Conservatory of Music, now and evermore, will be known as the William D. Hall and Marybelle and Sebastian P. Musco Conservatory of Music,” President Doti said.

Throughout it all, the tributes and conversations returned to Hall’s talent and leadership qualities and how he influenced generations of music educators in building the award-winning music programs of Chapman.

“To me, personally, he’s the biggest influence on my musicality,” said Jaclyn Johnson ’04, a music teacher now working on her doctorate. “He’s absolutely the most musical person I have ever met. The way he can shape a two-bar phrase is unlike anyone I’ve ever seen to this day. The faith that he has in all of us really pushed us to be the musicians we are today.”