Abravanel Hall

Abravanel Hall is a concert hall in Salt Lake City, Utah that is home to the Utah Symphony and Opera, and is part of the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts. The hall is an architectural landmark in the city, and is adjacent to Temple Square and the Salt Palace on South Temple Street.

History

Abravanel Hall first opened in September, 1979, and was originally known as Symphony Hall, but was renamed in May, 1993 for Maurice Abravanel, conductor of the Utah Symphony. In 1998, the Hall underwent an expansion project which added wheelchair accessible restrooms, a new Ticket Office, and a new reception room.

Architecture

The hall is actually a concrete building within a brick building, and was designed by Dr. Cyril M. Harris to provide an environment of acoustic excellence. Harris was the acoustical consultant for the remodeled Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The hall is rectangular in shape, similar to some of the world's finest symphony halls, such as the Grosser Musikvereinssaal in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Symphony Hall in Boston. The stage was designed strictly for use as a concert hall, and has no proscenium - meaning that it is an extension of the audience. To enter the hall, patrons must pass through sound lock corridors designed to isolate the concert hall from the noise and confusion of the lobby. Inside the hall, there are convex curved surfaces on the walls and ceilings. Suspended from the ceiling are six 16 x 16 foot brass chandeliers with 18,000 hand cut beads and prisms of Bohemian crystals imported from Austria and Czechoslovakia. The lobby is four stories high, with a white oak and brass ceiling, and a 5,400 square foot glass curtain or wall which covers much of the East face of the triangular-shaped lobby. The lobby itself is an architectural marvel due to its many tiers, the staircase that goes upwards and to the left along with the triangular shape of the enclosure, the gold leafing that covers all visible sides of the stairs and balconies, and the thirty-foot high red blown-glass sculpture ("The Olympic Tower", by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly) that is displayed prominently in the middle.

See also

* List of major concert halls

External links

* [http://www.finearts.slco.org/facilities/abravanel/abravanel.html Abravanel Hall Web Page]