University of Massachusetts Amherst senior jazz performance major Matt Padula performs “Images of the Blue Earth” by the late Frederick Tillis, pictured above, at the dedication of the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall on Tuesday. Before his retirement in 1998, Tillis served UMass as professor and founding director of the jazz and African-American music studies program and as director of the Fine Arts Center, which on Tuesday was also dedicated with a new name, the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts. Behind Padula are Harley Erdman, chair of the Department of Theater, and College of the Humanities and Fine Arts Dean Barbara Krauthamer.
University of Massachusetts Amherst senior jazz performance major Matt Padula performs “Images of the Blue Earth” by the late Frederick Tillis, pictured above, at the dedication of the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall on Tuesday. Before his retirement in 1998, Tillis served UMass as professor and founding director of the jazz and African-American music studies program and as director of the Fine Arts Center, which on Tuesday was also dedicated with a new name, the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts. Behind Padula are Harley Erdman, chair of the Department of Theater, and College of the Humanities and Fine Arts Dean Barbara Krauthamer. Credit: STAFF PHOTO/KEVIN GUTTING

AMHERST – In a program at the University of Massachusetts on Tuesday, the Fine Arts Center was dedicated as the Randolph W. Bromery Center for the Arts and the concert hall dedicated as the Frederick C. Tillis Performance Hall. Senior jazz performance major Matt Padula performed Tillis’ “Images of the Blue Earth” for about 200 people attending. Before his retirement in 1998, Tillis served UMass as Professor and Founding director of the Jazz and African-American Music Studies Program and as Director of the Fine Arts Center.

Kevin Gutting can be reached at kgutting@gazettenet.com.