Corrected and updated October 11, 2016
Indian Hill Music (IHM) last week announced plans to build a new music education and performance center in Groton.
In a Sept. 23 announcement, IHM Executive Director Susan Randazzo said the new center will be built on a 33.5-acre site located at 122 Old Ayer Road and purchased by IHM in 2015. The land was formerly owned by J. Geils, founder of the J. Geils Band and a longtime resident of the town. According to publicist Laura Grant, the organization owns an additional 77 acres north and east of the site that is zoned for agricultural and residential development.
An artist’s rendering of the to-be-built Indian Hill performance center. (Courtesy illustration)
The facility will consist of one large, two-story building (see artist’s rendering) that will include classrooms for the music school as well as a 300-seat recital room and a 1,000-seat concert hall. The site plan for the center retains a riding arena “to maintain the look of the New England farm from the road,” Grant wrote. Also included in the plan is a large Festival Meadow that “could be used as a welcome area, in case we have a one-day festival,” Grant said.
The plan has been submitted to the Groton Planning Board and was shared with the public at a Sept. 23 event in Groton. The cost of the project has not been released, but Grant said it is funded entirely by private donations. Construction is expected to begin next spring and to be completed in 2020.
The school currently offers lessons on more than 30 instruments and voice to an estimated 1,200 students annually, drawn from as far away as Boston and Nashua and from as near as Harvard. IHM is also home to the 70-member Orchestra of Indian Hill. Once the new center is complete, Grant said, IHM will sell and move out of its facility in Littleton.
According to a Sept. 24 article in The (Lowell) Sun, some neighbors have said they are concerned about an expected increase in traffic, especially following evening events. IHM officials are scheduled to appear at a public hearing before the Groton Planning Board on Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. to make their case.
Editor’s note: This article has been corrected and updated. The original article stated that the current arts center serves more than 7,000 music students annually. The correct number is 1,200.
