Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall

Manon Caine Russell (1931-2017) Kathryn Caine Wanlass (1938-2011) Performance Hall

Sisters Kathryn Caine Wanlass and Manon Caine Russell founded the Marie Eccles Caine Charitable Foundation, named for their mother, in 1981. Its funds financed the Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall at USU, a multi-million-dollar structure that opened in 2006 and was the first building on campus designed specifically for chamber music.

Like her mother, Marie, Kathryn had an exceptional eye for color and a sense of responsibility to one’s community. When she moved back to Logan she pursued multiple leadership opportunities including the Sunshine Terrace and Ellen Eccles Theater Boards out of a desire to contribute to the community whatever expertise she could.

Manon loved the outdoors and was heavily involved with the Girl Scouts. She loved the arts and spent years studying music and singing in choirs and operas — a natural fit, it was said after an opera performance she gave. Manon’s gifts continue to support students and the performing arts at USU.

The Manon Caine Russell Kathryn Caine Wanlass Performance Hall opened in January 2006. The building is a gift from sisters and features a 421-seat hall, a stage for up to 22 performers and a lobby with glass windows overlooking a plaza. The hall’s intimate scale is ideal for small acoustical performances, including chamber music, vocal and instrumental concerts, recitals, readings and lectures. An additional gift from George Caine Wanlass provided state-of-the-art recording equipment, allowing the Performance Hall the flexibility to be used as an exceptional recording studio.

Ann Preston, the artist responsible for “Passacaglia,” the behemoth sculpture of repeating gray and silver tetrahedral shapes adorning the lobby of the performance hall, once described the building as having “a vulnerability, an openness” that allows one to “think your own thoughts and feel your own feelings.” Ann crafted the sculpture to invoke “passacaglia,” a musical composition of successive variations over a steadying base. Similar but independent. Different but melodious.

*Note: All bios are current and up-to-date as of Summer 2022.