A former home of Congregation Shaare Emeth will now serve as the headquarters for Washington University’s applied music students, and will provide the university with a new music performance hall.

The 560 Music Center, located at Trinity and Delmar at the western end of the University City Loop, utilizes the building Shaare Emeth occupied from 1932 until the congregation fully moved into its current location, at Ladue Road and Ballas Road, in 1980.

Washington University opened the building for student use this semester.

The university purchased the 45,000 square foot building from Webster University for $4.9 million in October 2005, according to university officials. The university began extensive renovations, creating four ensemble rehearsal rooms and seven individual practice modules and 25 teaching studios to accomodate the close to 500 applied music students at Wash. U.

Other renovations were done to the 1,115 seat E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, which occupies the former main sanctuary of Shaare Emeth. The theater is now the largest Washington University performance space, said Charlie Robin, executive director of Edison Theatre, who also handles booking for the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall.

“We are really excited about the new performance and rehearsal spaces,” Robin said. “Our campus music and performance groups really needed room to expand, and this does that perfectly.”

“I think this is going to mark a major turning point, not only for applied music, but for the whole music program ,” said professor Dolores Pesce, chair of the Washington University Music Department. She noted that she also hopes to build partnerships with the neighboring musical and cultural institutions and facilities.

Outside organizations may also rent the performance spaces, she said.

Washington University has left intact the Jewish architectural elements that mark the building as a former synagogue. In the E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, an expansive mosaic rises behind the stage (formerly the bima), with twelve circular mosaics, artistic renderings marking the Twelve Lost Tribes of Israel and six circular mosaics representing Shabbat and the five major Jewish holidays.

Rabbi Jeffrey Stiffman, rabbi emeritus of Congregation Shaare Emeth, knows the building well. Stiffman served the congregation as senior rabbi from 1971 to 2004.

“It’s a remarkable building, ” Stiffman said. “Every time I visit, I am struck by its beauty, and the acoustics of the theater are wonderful. “

Stiffman said he has returned to the building several times to view performances, and even to perform on the piano over the years, while the building was operated by CASA, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and then Webster University.

To celebrate the opening of the 560 Music Center, Washington University will hold a “Ten Piano Extravaganza ” concert on Oct. 28. The concert will feature Leonard Slatkin, music director of the National Symphony Orchestra and former music director for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, as guest conductor, who will lead performances of works by Wagner, Sousa, Bach, Walton, Grieg, von Supp é, Poulenc and Rachmaninoff.

The fundraising concert will feature performances by more than a dozen student, faculty and alumni pianists, including Seth Carlin, professor of music, and Hugh Macdonald, Ph.D., the Avis H. Blewett Professor of Music.

The “Ten Piano Extravaganza ” begins at 7 p.m. The E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall is located on the north side of the 560 Music Center, at the intersection of Trinity and Delmar. General admission tickets are $25, or $10 for Washington University students. Reserved tickets, which include admission to a post-concert reception for Slatkin, are $100.

For more information or to order tickets, call the Edison Theatre Box Office, at 314-935-6543.