For years now, I’ve been enjoying the benefits of seatguru.com, which until it was picked up by TripAdvisor.com in 2007, was a fairly well kept secret. After that, the associated spike in traffic meant more travelers with inside info but for whatever reason, the handful of business colleagues I tipped off to seatguru had never heard of it before. Well, that’s all gone now since cultural uber-blogger Alex Ross posted a little something in praise of the service a few days ago at The Rest Is Noise…
Concert Halls
Orchestral Acoustics 102: Orchestra vs. Hall
In a recent blog post, Washington Post music critic, Ann Midgette, posed questions concerning:
- what influence a hall’s acoustic response has on orchestral performance technique, and
- what effect the 1997 renovation of the Kennedy Center Concert Hall had in improving acoustics onstage and in the audience.
In response to the first, I can report conclusively that orchestras have great flexibility in adapting their playing to different environments. I offer a few anecdotal observations here supporting this contention and also comment on the effect of recent acoustical adjustments at Kennedy Center Concert Hall…
James Russell Gets It
The 6/28/09 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) published a guest column by James Russell, the architecture critic for Bloomberg. For my money, Russell is one of the rare visionary writers in this country. His onetime blog, Sticks and Stones, was a beacon of insight and reason that not only predicted the 2008 housing fiasco years in advance, but it regularly covered issues related to architecture and concert hall design. Russell’s AJC piece examines the pros and cons related to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s (ASO) decision to shelve plans for the Santiago Calatrava designed concert hall…
Digging Around In Nashville’s Basement
Back in September when the Schermerhorn Symphony Center opened to the public, the only part of the basement level that was easily accessible was the kitchen. The rest of the space was consumed with ad hoc storage, not yet finished, and generally inaccessible. Skip ahead four months to and some of the space is still being used as ad hoc storage but at least it is all accessible…
Following Up On The Schermerhorn Symphony Center
While touring through the Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) during the gala opening events in September, 2006 I only found a few problems throughout the otherwise superlative building. Nevertheless, I was anxious to discover if those problems have been addressed over the past four months…