Concert venue celebrates its seventh year

By Michael Kelly

Shortly before Infinity Hall opened in October 2008, newly-hired sound engineer Fred Schane climbed the stairs to the long dormant hall for the first time. Entranced by the look and feel of the vintage theater, he was more interested in how the mellowed wood and parabola ceiling might absorb and reflect the panoply of sounds that would soon be emanating from the stage.

While a friend played guitar at center stage, Schane circled the auditorium, from the orchestra seats all the way to the back mezzanine, listening intently. Having majored in physics and audio technology at American University in Washington, Fred knew well what he was hearing—the builders of Village Hall had gotten it exactly right in 1883—the acoustics were perfect and he was on his way to maximizing the venerable hall’s musical potential.

Deep within the recesses of our brains, there is a reward center called the nucleus accumbens. When we listen to music, particularly live music, this center releases the neurotransmitter dopamine, eliciting an organic, natural high. Imagine how considerable that release has been these last seven years for Schane, a musician and song writer in his own right, who has served as maestro of sound at Infinity Hall for over 1,700 shows.

A calm, reassuring presence, conducting from the podium of Infinity’s $25,000 state-of-the-art Yamaha M7CL 48-channel mixing board, Schane made a mind-boggling constellation of musicians, from every imaginable music genre, sound their very best. Prior to each concert, Schane would meet with the musicians for the all-important sound check, sometimes for as long as an hour, to get the input levels, shadings, pitch and modulation just right for every instrument, voice and microphone on stage.

During the shows, while audiences relished the music washing over them, Schane was at the controls, subtly mixing and blending volumes and tonal colors to determine whether a signal needed to be sent from his Yamaha, the electronic brains of the show, to individual wedge monitors mounted on stage. Invariably, near the end of every concert, often headlined by world-famous artists like jazz pianist Chick Corea, country star LeAnn Rimes, folk legend Judy Collins, rock icon Leon Russell or movie star/musician Kevin Costner, there would be a pause on stage while the musicians publicly expressed their affection and gratitude to Schane for skillfully enriching their unique, individual sound.

After years of working with some of the best musicians in the world, 99 percent of whom, he says, were a pleasure to get to know, Schane stepped down from his position. Eager to unwind and concentrate on his own musical ventures, he takes with him indelible memories of working with scores of vaunted performers such as Johnny Winter, Arlo Guthrie, Ten Years After and jazz great Dave Brubeck, whose Infinity Hall show is now in the Library of Congress.

On Saturday October 17, Infinity Norfolk celebrated its seventh anniversary. The next night, at an Infinity Stars party, owner Dan Hincks presented Schane with a framed copy of Infinity’s first program poster from 2008. In heartfelt remarks, Hincks thanked Schane for his years of dedication, especially for his professionalism and dependability (he always made the one-hour drive from Canaan, N.Y. no matter how much it snowed). Hincks went on to say that because of people like Schane, and after one of the best summers at the box-office in 2015, the future of Infinity Norfolk is very bright. “But we will very much miss our friend, Fred Schane, the best sound engineer I’ve ever known.” With that, Hincks and Schane bro-hugged, and a remarkable era at Infinity Hall came to an end.

The photograph, by Michael Kelly, shows Fred Schane, left, with Infinity owner Dan Hincks.