Lettering Installed To Rename Music Building In Honor Of UA Alumni

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It’s now official: the lettering has gone up on the music building at the University of Arkansas, signaling the permanent renaming of the building for George and Boyce Billingsley of Bella Vista, Ark.

Their $1.15 million gift in February 2000 established a program for international music preservation in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

"Naming the building in honor of the Billingsleys ensures that students and faculty now and in the future will know of their devotion to culture and the arts," said Stephen Gates, music department chair. "They have been among our strongest supporters and have been especially generous to our programs in opera and ancient Asian music."

In addition to funding the World Center for Research in Ancient Asian and Mid-Eastern Music and the opera program, the gift also supports the efforts of three distinguished UA scholars in the music department: Sarah Caldwell, Rembrandt Wolpert and Elizabeth Markham.

Caldwell, who founded the International Music Preservation Program at the Library of Congress, is leading the effort to preserve ancient music from the Tang culture, which dates back to 618 A.D. and encompasses a broad geographical area ranging from Turkey and Japan to Siberia and Vietnam. Wolpert and Markham are conducting the research and transcription necessary for both saving and performing this music.

George Billingsley, a 1957 UA graduate in history, is chairman and chief executive officer of Pacific Resources Export Limited and president of International Tours of Northwest Arkansas. He and his wife, Boyce, a 1955 graduate in finance and banking, are members of the Chancellor’s Society and contributors to the restoration of Old Main.

Chancellor John A. White said, "The Billingsleys have once again demonstrated their support of world-class programs and research at the University. Naming the building for them is our way of preserving their years of commitment to this campus and their obvious love of international culture."

The George and Boyce Billingsley Music Building, completed in 1976 as an annex to the Fine Arts Building, has several classrooms, an electronic piano studio, a computer lab, an organ studio, faculty offices and practice rooms. It is home to the 30 faculty and 225 students of the music department.

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