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The focal point of Winspear Centre for Music
is its Enmax concert hall, designed in the tradition of the great
European orchestral halls. A separate rehearsal hall and appropriate
back-of-house support facilities, including offices for the Edmonton
Symphony and the Edmonton Concert Hall Foundation, facilitate
the use of the Centre by diverse members of the community. Winspear
Centre for Music opened in September 1997.
The 1917-seat concert hall is a tall, rectangular
room with stepped, curved balconies and terraces. With its parallel
side walls, the Winspear represents a modern adaptation of the classic
"shoebox" shaped concert halls of the late 19th and early
20th centuries.
The room was designed to have exceptional natural
acoustics for a wide range of musical events, from symphonic orchestra,
chamber ensembles, and soloists, to amplified folk, jazz, country
music, and speech. The acoustics of the Winspear are adjustable
through the use of velour banners and curtains on every level of
the hall. These can be used to control the reverberant characteristics
for musical events that require a less reverberant environment,
or for orchestra rehearsals when the presence of a full audience
needs to be approximated. An adjustable canopy system balances the
clarity and reverberance of performances, helps control the loudness
of the sound, and - in conjunction with the curved acoustic reflectors
- assists in cross-stage communication among musicians.
Artec provided Design and Planning services covering
Pre-Design
Phase services, Auditorium
Design, Facility
Planning, Specialized
Performance Equipment Systems Design and Noise
& Vibration Control consulting for Winspear
Centre for Music. The Architect was Cohos
Evamy Partners.
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