Sonoma State University announced Tuesday that a flurry of year-end donations has boosted the Green Music Center's fund-raising campaign to the $39 million mark, paving the way for construction of the center to begin this spring.

The fund-raising campaign, undertaken by SSU in partnership with the Santa Rosa Symphony, reached the milestone Tuesday after receiving a combined gift of $60,000 from Santa Rosa Symphony conductor laureate Corrick Brown and his wife, Norma, and symphony music director Jeffrey Kahane and his wife, Martha.

"Finally, a world-class music center for our region is within reach," said Brown, who is co-chairman of the Green Music Center capital campaign with Telecom Valley entrepreneur Donald Green. Green and his wife, Maureen, contributed the initial $10 million to launch the project in 1997.

The 1,400-seat Donald and Maureen Green Music Center will serve as the new home for the Santa Rosa Symphony and provide a concert venue for SSU students, visiting artists and community musical groups.

The $39 million concert hall is modeled after Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, with a back wall that opens to additional lawn seating that would accommodate up to 8,000 concertgoers in the summer.

SSU expects to put the construction project for the concert hall out to bid at the end of February and to choose a contractor in early April.

That decision will be submitted to the California State University board of trustees for final approval in May, with construction expected to begin soon after.

If construction begins as planned, SSU officials hope to open the new music center in time for the fall concert season of 2006.

SSU first sought bids for the project last winter, but construction could not begin because the bids came in over budget. Minor changes in the project were made after that to bring down costs.

"We made the project more efficient in terms of the circulation and mechanical and electrical systems," said Stuart Jones, SSU vice president for development. "The patron experience was not changed at all."

The initial $39 million raised will cover construction of the concert hall, adjacent lobbies, a founder's room, backstage dressing rooms, a musician's lounge, an outdoor courtyard, a retail shop and restrooms.

SSU plans to continue fund raising to finish off the interior of the concert hall and buy furniture. The cost of completing the project is unknown.

The university still hopes to build a smaller recital hall adjacent to the concert hall, then continue raising money for an endowment fund to underwrite programs.

The music center received a $3 million gift in the fall from Evert and Norma Person, boosting the campaign to within $1 million of the $39 million needed to start construction.

Other major donors include Jacques and Barbara Schlumberger, the Schulz Fund of the Community Foundation of Sonoma County, the Trione Foundation, Herb and Janet Dwight, and John and Jennifer Webley.

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed a bill that included $225,000 for construction of the center. The money was secured by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Petaluma. That bill has been sent to President Bush for his signature.