Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center
The Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center is part of Mercyhurst University. History. The Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center opened in February 1996. The first concert featured pianist André Watts. During a blizzard, Watts took the stage to perform in front of nearly 800 people on a piano that was shipped to them from Pittsburgh. In the middle of his performance, Watts stood up and the audience stared in confusion as the piano continued to play. Turns out the piano keys were frozen and an untuned piano from backstage was wheeled out for him to play . After that performance Watts swore that he would never again agree to play a grand opening because of his self-proclaimed "curse." Apparently Watts opened two other facilities that year and a fire alarm and sprinklers interrupted his performances. When the Mary D’Angelo Performing Arts Center opened in 1996, the center had two full-time and two part-time staff members. In its infancy, the center brought in nearly 4,000 people a year and offered between six and seven programs, which consisted of the finest in Classical music featuring artists such as Kathleen Battle and the Juilliard String Quartet. Fourteen  years later, the center has a staff of six full-time employees and offers over a hundred events each year featuring jazz, dance, classical, contemporary and world music. Serving as the only active movie house in the city of Erie, the center is also home to the Guelcher Film Series, The Metropolitan Opera: HD Live series and the Live from NY's 92nd Street Y broadcast lecture series. Mercyhurst's D'Angelo Arts Complex in Zurn Hall exceeds . The arts complex also includes the black-box Taylor Little Theatre, the Walker Recital Hall, and the recently expanded Cummings Art Gallery. Adjacent  to the Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center are the department of dance with two dance studios called danceSpace, and the D'Angelo department of music. Staff. The Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center has seven full-time employees PAC Cummings Art Gallery Notable performances. The center has hosted several Grammy Award-winning artists such as Maria Schneider, Paquito D’Rivera and Eric Bibb. World-renowned dance troupes such as the Paul Taylor Dance Company and Pilobolus have graced the stage of the D’Angelo Center, along with world music artists such as Pink Martini and Jesse Cook. The most successful show and quite possibly  the most well known in the center's history is the Japanese drummers, known as Yamato. Yamato has visited Erie four times over the last seven years and has performed five sold-out performances to over 5,000 people. Other notable performances include those that comprise the center's educational outreach program. Through the program, the D’Angelo Center has had the opportunity to expose the young people in the area to the arts. Since the start of the program the center has been able to provide over 6,300 students with the opportunity to see performances such as the African Drummers, Ba  Cissoko, Latin dance troupe Ballet Hispanico and Yamato.