SOMERS — The University of Wisconsin-Parkside has never had a true concert hall since its founding 41 years ago, when Frances Bedford first started teaching music on campus.

“It would have made a tremendous difference. I would have loved to have had the opportunity. But now, others can have it,” Bedford said Tuesday after a groundbreaking ceremony for a $34 million project to remodel and expand the Communication Arts Building and improve other facilities.

Thanks in part to her $500,000 donation to the UW-Parkside Foundation, the expansion will include the 340-seat Frances Bedford Concert Hall designed specifically for musical performance, something sorely lacking. That’s not just according to Bedford, who taught at Parkside from 1970-1994 before retiring as a full professor; it was the consensus shared Tuesday by faculty, students, administrators and Chancellor Deborah Ford.

“I always felt the need for a chamber recital hall,” Bedford said. “I think the faculty we have now is the best we’ve ever had. Our outreach has always been very good, very active. So, we had to have this. Now, we’ll be able to bring groups in to perform, and more students will be attracted to come here.”

The existing theater “really wasn’t a concert hall as such,” she added. “We always felt like we needed one. The theater is great, but it’s not a concert hall. It’s built for different purposes. It’s built for the spoken word,” said Bedford, who once taught piano in the science building before the current Communication Arts Building was erected.

To request $33.9 million in state funding for the bonded project, Parkside needed an outside commitment of 10 percent. Bedford’s donation spurred others, said Foundation President Howard Olson. “It was the cornerstone of the entire project,” Olson said.

Bedford’s gift will “allow us to have a first-class performance space,” said Lenny Klaver, vice chancellor for university relations.

James McKeever, Music Department chairman, said the importance of the hall, as well as expanded and upgraded practice rooms, couldn’t be overstated. “This basically is going to be a new beginning for the Music Department. We’re going to have all we need to have for a complete, thriving music program,” he said.

Before taking up a spade and joining others to turn soil, Ford told the audience Tuesday’s groundbreaking culminated efforts that began with McKeever sketching the concept on a piece of paper, only to have it rejected when first submitted under the 1999-2001 state biennial budget. “It truly has taken us 10 years to get here,” Ford said.