Slee Hall contains a 700-seat performance hall, two rehearsal rooms, a recording studio, an electronic music room, and support services for musicians, lighting crews, and sound personnel. It serves as a showplace for major musical events and a hall for prominent guest artists and lecturers from all over the world. It features a custom-made C.B. Fisk self-contained, free-standing tracker action organ, with 1,826 pipes, 36 ranks, and 32 stops.
Frederick (1870-1954) and Alice Slee (1875-1956) were Buffalo music aficionados who gave the university a $900,000 endowment to support annual performances of the entire cycle of Beethoven's string quartets.Frederick Slee was a noted Buffalo corporate lawyer and a devoted yachtsman. Alice Slee was an honored member of the American Red Cross who was known for her flair in choosing hats. The first Beethoven cycle was performed in 1955 by the renowned Budapest String Quartet, which performed it for the next 11 years. The cycle continues in 2004 with the Vermeer, Ives and Muir String Quartets.