Cullen Performance Hall is a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage (theatre), stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention ...

located on the campus of the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The hall, comprising the eastern half of the E. Cullen Building, was named in honor of Ezekiel W. Cullen, a former

congressman A member of congress (MOC), also known as a congressman or congresswoman, is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The t ...

for the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

. The facility seats 1,544, and hosts music, opera, dance, theatrical events, and public lectures. Opening in 1950, the facility was designed by

Alfred C. Finn Alfred Charles Finn (July 2, 1883 – June 26, 1964) was an American architect. He started in the profession with no formal training in 1904 as an apprentice for Sanguinet & Staats. He worked in their offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston. H ...

History

On March 21, 1945, the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building along with Cullen Performance Hall was announced. Construction of Cullen Performance Hall was part of a large expansion to the University of Houston's permanent buildings on campus that took place starting on May 10, 1948. The hall originally sat 1,680, and was intended to host similar events as the

Houston Music Hall Houston Music Hall was a 2,200-seat music venue located in Houston, Texas. The Music Hall opened in November 1937, at the same time as the Sam Houston Coliseum, which were built conjointly as the brainchild of Jesse H. Jones, and designed by Alfr ...

which was the main music venue for the city at the time. The hall was named in honor of Ezekiel W. Cullen, a

for the

, and the grandfather of then University of Houston Regent

Hugh Roy Cullen Hugh Roy Cullen (July 3, 1881 – July 4, 1957) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Cullen was heavily involved in the petroleum industry having struck oil near Texas in 1928. He was a large supporter of multiple educational institu ...

who was the principal donor to the project. The university hired native Houston architect Alfred C. Finn to design the building. In order to give the building a classical look, Finn designed the building with long wings and regularly spaced

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

s. The dedication of the Cullen Performance Hall was held in conjunction with the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building on

Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...

of 1950. For the dedication, conductor

Efrem Kurtz Efrem Kurtz (; November 7, 1900June 27, 1995) was a Russian conductor. Life and career Kurtz was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He studied at the Saint Petersburg conservatory with Alexander Glazunov and Nikolai Tcherepnin, among others. He ...

directed the

Houston Symphony Orchestra The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. The orchestra is resident at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts. History The first concert of what was to become the Houston Symphony took place on June 21, 1 ...

, and H.R. Cullen gave a speech. In 1988, the facility received complete renovations.

Past events

Music

Artists who have appeared at Cullen Performance Hall include

Depeche Mode Depeche Mode are an English electronic music, electronic band formed in Basildon, Essex in 1980. Originally formed with the line-up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher (musician), Andy Fletcher and Vince Clarke, the band currently consists ...

The Smiths The Smiths were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1982, composed of Morrissey (vocals), Johnny Marr (guitar), Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (musician), Mike Joyce (drums). Morrissey and Marr formed the band's songwrit ...

Los Lobos Los Lobos (, Spanish for "the Wolves") is a Mexican American rock group, rock band from East Los Angeles, California. Their music is influenced by rock and roll, Tex-Mex, country, zydeco, folk, R&B, blues, brown-eyed soul, and traditional ...

Tori Amos Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...

Dead Can Dance Dead Can Dance are a British-Australian band founded in Melbourne in 1981 by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, before relocating to London the following year. The Australian music historian Ian McFarlane described Dead Can Dance's style as "const ...

Tracy Chapman Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, widely known for her hit singles " Fast Car" (1988) and " Give Me One Reason" (1995). She was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987. The following year she rel ...

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

Djavan Djavan Caetano Viana (; born 27 January 1949) is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest singers in Brazilian history. Early life and career Djavan was born in Maceió, Brazil to a whit ...

Rick Braun Rick Braun (born July 6, 1955) is an American smooth jazz trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone and keyboards player, vocalist, composer, and record producer. Early life and education Braun was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania and attended Dieruff High ...

Jonathan Butler Jonathan Kenneth Butler (born 10 October 1961) is a South African singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music is often classified as R&B, jazz fusion or worship music. Biography Born and raised in Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa, during apa ...

Richard Elliot Richard Elliot (born January 16, 1960) is an American saxophonist. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards for '' Summer Horns''. Biography Early life Elliot was born in the Scot ...

, Peter White,

Cyndi Lauper Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper ( ; born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing, and for her powerful four-octave vocal range;Jerome, ...

The Clash The Clash were an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1976. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they are considered one of the most influential acts in the original wave of British punk rock, with their music fusing elements ...

, and the

Ramones The Ramones were an American punk rock band formed in the New York City neighborhood Forest Hills, Queens in 1974. Known for helping establish the punk movement in the United States and elsewhere, the Ramones are often recognized as one of th ...

Lectures

Rapper and political activist

Chuck D Carlton Douglas Ridenhour (born August 1, 1960), known professionally as Chuck D, is an American rapper, best known as the leader and frontman of the hip hop group Public Enemy, which he co-founded in 1985 with Flavor Flav. Chuck D is also a me ...

spoke at a public lecture at Cullen Performance Hall in 2006. Filmmaker Charles Burnett discussed his 1978 film ''

Killer of Sheep ''Killer of Sheep'' is a 1978 American drama film edited, filmed, written, produced, and directed by Charles Burnett. Shot primarily in 1972 and 1973, it was originally submitted by Burnett to the UCLA School of Film in 1977 as his Master of Fi ...

'' there in 2008, while

Spike Lee Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...

spoke there in 2004. Nobel laureates

James D. Watson James Dewey Watson (born April 6, 1928) is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, he co-authored with Francis Crick the academic paper in ''Nature'' proposing the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Wats ...

and

Eric Kandel Eric Richard Kandel (; born Erich Richard Kandel, November 7, 1929) is an Austrian-born American medical doctor who specialized in psychiatry, a neuroscientist and a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the College of Physicians and Surgeo ...

lectured at the hall in 2007, and were moderated by

Ferid Murad Ferid Murad (September 14, 1936 – September 4, 2023) was an American physician and pharmacologist, and a co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Early life Ferid Murad was born in Whiting, Indiana, on September 14, ...

. Also in 2007, inventor and futurist

Raymond Kurzweil Raymond Kurzweil ( ; born February 12, 1948) is an American computer scientist, author, entrepreneur, futurist, and inventor. He is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition te ...

presented UH's 2007 Farfel Distinguished Lecture at the location. Academic scholar

Cornel West Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, theologian, political activist, politician, social critic, and public intellectual. West was an independent candidate in the 2024 United States presidential election and is an ou ...

lectured on race relations as a guest of the university's Graduate College of Social Work in 2005.

Other

ESPN's '' College GameDay'' broadcast from outside of the Cullen Performance Hall when they came to the University of Houston campus to cover the #8 Houston team compete against SMU from November 18–19, 2011.

References

External links

Cullen Performance HallUniversity of Houston
{{University of Houston University of Houston campus Music venues in Houston Concert halls in Texas Music venues completed in 1950 Art Deco architecture in Texas 1950 establishments in Texas