Loss of Trianon Theatre squeezing South Bay arts groups

Music and arts groups are scrambling to find a rental venues now that the downtown San Jose concert hall has been sold with plans to make it the new home for a South Bay church.

Composer and pianist Charlie Albright closes the Steinway Society’s 24th season at the Trianon Theatre in downtown San Jose on Saturday night with a program that includes Beethoven, Chopin and his own work. And it may be worth going for reasons beyond Albright’s talent. South Bay music and arts lovers are losing the Trianon as a performance venue.

The building at 72 N. First St. was built by architect William Binder in 1923, modeled after the Petit Trianon on the grounds of Versailles. Ironically, it originally was built as a house of worship and will likely return to being one as New Beginnings Community Church is expected to occupy the building, which was purchased by Sand Hill Property Company.

Performances by groups including the South Bay Guitar Society and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, as well as the San Jose International Piano Competition, slated for May and June at Trianon will go on as planned. But no rentals have been scheduled after July 1, according to several arts groups that have been the theater’s primary tenants for decades. So those groups are scrambling to find venues for their upcoming seasons, highlighting the lack of smaller-sized performance halls suitable for piano recitals and chamber quartets in San Jose.

Some affected groups met with staff members from the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs on Tuesday, as many of them receive grant money tied to having most of their performances in San Jose. Kerry Adams Hapner, the city’s director of cultural affairs, said her office is recommending a $40,000 transition grant fund be established in the upcoming year’s budget for arts groups that are current grantees and had contracts with Trianon. It is meant to help these smaller-budget arts groups bridge the gap should they need to pay more to rent a new venue, Adams Hapner said.

“We have a real stake in their success, and we want them to be sustainable and we want them to stay in San Jose,” she said.

There are a handful of stage-ready venues similar in size to the 318-seat Trianon, including the Hammer Theatre Center, the Montgomery Theater, the Mexican Heritage Plaza theater and 3Below Theaters. Outside San Jose, potential venues include the Campbell Heritage Theatre and the McAfee Center in Saratoga. Most of those options, however, are well-booked in the coming months, so that may require adjustments on the part of the arts groups and patience on the part of their audiences.

“I think the good graces of our patrons will get us through, and that within two seasons we should have figured things out,” said San Jose Chamber Orchestra founder and music director Barbara Day Turner.

A longer–term solution, however, could be the construction of a new 300-500 seat performance venue in downtown San Jose. With all the building that’s already going on and planned for the city in the coming years, there should be a way to look out for our arts groups. Housing is obviously needed, and jobs in office buildings keep the city’s coffers filled, but San Jose will be a lesser place if it doesn’t find space for its cultural side.

RARE ‘MASS’ PERFORMANCE: Seats are going quickly for Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass,” which is the San Jose State School of Music and Dance is presenting on Friday night and Sunday afternoon at the Hammer Theatre Center. More than 200 performers will be part of the elaborate production.

“The Mass is an iconic piece,” says Fred Cohen, the director of the School of Music and Dance. “It was commissioned, by Jacqueline Kennedy for the opening of the Kennedy Center in 1971, and is rarely performed owing in part to the complexities of the personnel required: full orchestra, chorus, 20 vocal soloists plus a lead ‘celebrant,’ children’s chorus, blues band, rock band, marching band, surround-sound recording capability.” Tickets are available at www.hammertheatre.com.

MOVIES. MUSIC AT HISTORY PARK: History San Jose is launching a new outdoor movie and concert series this week at History Park called “Flicks & Grooves” that should delight fans of quirky films and eclectic bands. The six-month series will showcase the films of director Wes Anderson, starting Friday at 7:30 p.m. with “Moonrise Kingdom” and continuing with another of his movies on the second Friday of the month through October.

The concert side of things will be on the last Friday of each month, kicking off with Kiva Uhuru and Noop & Neens on May 31 and including Steely Nash, Aki Kumar and Le Vice over the summer. Beer, wine and food vendors will be on hand for each event, and you can also grab pop corn and ice cream from O’Brien’s. Get the full lineup at www.historysanjose.org.