UPDATE 4/21: Check out the amazing photo from the event, above, provided by Bee photog Tomas Ovalle. It shows Tim Shaghoian, Paul's son, performing under the "acoustical cloud" in the new concert hall.

There were many stellar moments Wednesday night at the official grand opening of the stunning new performing arts building at the recently opened Clovis North Educational Center -- a complex that includes the 750-seat Paul Shaghoian Concert Hall -- but the first real throat-gulper came when the basses sang.

The low, rumbling voices of the Clovis East High School Timberwolf Choir, soft as a rustle of leaves, introduced the song "Sure On This Shining Night" with such tenderness and musicality that it almost felt otherworldly. As the young men sang, their sound seemed to creep out at first from them, then slowly fill the hall with a sturdy warmth, much like a pleasant fragrance wafting in on a breeze. The choir (which is headed to New York City next week for a schedule that includes a performance in Carnegie Hall, by the way) sounded terrific. So did the other performing groups on the program.

It was all part of a celebration of one school district's spectacular dedication to the arts. The $17.5 million building, which includes the 150-seat Dan Pessano Theater, has to be one of the nation's finest high school performance facilities. For that, the school's governing board and administration, along with the pro-education Clovis district residents who approved the bond measures that made the building possible, deserve congratulations.

Sure, in a perfect world, all students in the Valley would have access to such impressive facilities. With our patchwork system of school financing, however, I don't think that's going to happen. Sometimes change has to occur at the local level, and more power to the Clovis district for having the foresight to plan (and pay) for a venue that contributes to a superior music education. (And it's nice to see the jazz band getting treated with the same respect as the varsity football team.) I'm glad that performing arts groups from other school districts will get a chance to experience the Shaghohian Hall's sophisticated acoustics in festivals and other invitational events.

In the meantime, the community is the richer for the new Shaghoian Hall. With its rich wood surfaces, gorgeously appointed interior, stylish architectural details and a massive acoustical "cloud" that can raise and lower before the audience's eyes, the hall is a marvel. (You can read my recent Bee story here about how it was specifically designed for superior acoustics.) Wednesday's event was intriguing because it gave audience members the chance to listen to different types of music and hear how each sounded in the hall.

When the Buchanan Jazz Combo and Jazz Band "A" took the stage, for example, the hall's reverberation chambers, towering on either side of the audience, were covered by custom designed draperies that absorb sound. The idea is to keep the live sound from bouncing all over the place. When the Riverview Elementary Festival Choir took the stage, however, the draperies were pulled, giving the vocalizations a chance to reverberate. The crowd oohed when the massive acoustical contraption above the stage, which consists of a grill with 20 sound reflecting "clouds" made of reinforced fiberglass that provide sound reflection both to the performers and the audience, slowly descended.

The possibilities for tinkering with the sound in the hall are nearly endless, ranging on the whim of a conductor.

Among honored guests in the audience included members of Paul Shaghoian's family. The hall is named for the beloved Buchanan High music teacher, who died four years ago.

The evening also highlighted some of the hall's lighting options, which range from a pure white concert setting to the ability to cast a colorful glow. When the Riverview group performed, the colors on stage seemed to pop: the vivid red shirts of the singers, the bright yellow flower pattern of the stage lights, the slate gray curtains at stage level and the turquoise-hued reverberation chamber above. Juxtaposed with the warm, blond-and-brown-hued acoustical pyramids lining the walls, it was an impressive sight.

All the performances were impressive, from Buchanan's famed jazz groups (which featured Tim Shaghoian, Paul's son) and the Clovis High Orchestra to the Clovis West Wind Ensemble. The concert was topped off by the Jazz Composers Orchestra, a group consisting in large part of friends, colleagues, students and even a teacher of Shaghoian's. As these pros played, their sound became like a wall: massive, sturdy, reassuring. What an appropriate way to inaugurate a hall that will be sure to inspire musicians for years to come.