US Projects

Best of all was the lush string sound that was soared from the pit -- the finest so far during a year of testing the new acoustics in the renovated hall.” - Janelle Gelfand’s - Cincinnati Business Courier

The sound was rich and luxurious, comfortably bearing the full weight of fortissimos and detailing pianissimos right down to the vanishing point. Instrumental colors bloomed.” ~ James R. Ostrich - New York Times

Contributing immeasurably to the music was a team not mentioned in the program – the engineers from a•’ku•stiks, the Norwalk, Conn., firm that consulted on the design of the Tobin Center’s 1,700-seat H-E-B Performance Hall, which opened in September, 2014. After a few months of experimentation to find the optimum configuration, the multipurpose hall now houses the San Antonio Symphony in aural splendor with a sound that can compete with the best single-purpose concert halls of recent decades – resonant, open, and astonishingly faithful to instrumental timbres. Bravi!
” ~ Mike Greenberg - Classical Voice North America

His strong-throated lament, underscored by an oboe and a small amplifier which produced a droning baseline, rose up into the 80-foot vault of the Armory like fire turning softly to smoke — an incineration of the heart’s earthly bonds.” ~ William L. Hamilton - New York Times

Auburn is known obviously for a great engineering school and great agriculture school, but to be able to have a venue like this that will bring in artists to support all academics at the University is very important.” - Chris Heacox, Executive Director - Jay and Susie Gogue Center for Performing Arts.

The Kings Theatre is now once again an integral part of this community, after being lost to the city for so long. ~ David Anderson - President and CEO of ACE Theatrical Group

Mahler and Meyer provide the Nashville Symphony with a glorious finale...

Belmont rings in the holidays in its new concert hall...

The Belmont University Performing Arts Center will house a 1,700-seat multi-purpose theatre, a grand lobby and two contiguous event spaces that can hold more than 900 guests when combined with the lobby. ” - Belmont University Office of Communications

With just 1,100 seats, the hall has a communal feel, as if the musicians and their audience are huddled around a campfire. ~ Star Tribune - Best of Minnesota 2015

It’s an important element of citizenship especially in a democracy, and the community is better, our society is better when we cherish so much and are so proud of what we own together, what we share equally and fully with our fellow citizens. This most beautiful public building, which serves so many purposes, is now this generation’s gift to the future.” ~ Mayor Joe Riley - Charleston, South Carolina

We aren't fighting to get people in, people are fighting to get in (to Signature Theatre Center)

In Collaboration with the Conductors Guild: Behind the Curtain: The Music Director Search” - Monday, June 3, 2019 9:00 AM 12:00 PM - Nashville, Tennessee

What an improvement in the patron experience overall, especially within the auditorium itself. The music has never sounded so rich, so detailed, so warm. Much has to do with everyone being in the same room, but no doubt removing less-desirable seats and bringing in walls to shrink the overall volume has had a huge impact.” - Thom Mariner - Movers&Shakers Cincinnati

AIA New York State has cited the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater at Marcus Garvey Park with a 2013 Award of Merit.

The Tobin Center brings San Antonio into the modern age of premier performance spaces and provides a facility that rivals many similar facilities in New York, Europe and other large cities.

New Ordway concert hall hits the right notes ~ Finance & Commerce by: Brian Johnson

The Foo Fighters got right to the business of breaking in the place and demonstrating that despite the cavernous ceilings, the Anthem sound is loud. And clear.” - Cathy Appelfeld Olson - Billboard

There was never any question about who would open. There was no Plan B,” I.M.P. chairman Seth Hurwitz said. “It was always just the Foos. I texted Dave some photos of the venue after we started building it and asked him ‘Who else should open it?’ He said ‘Nobody.’ That was the end of it.”

Immediately it was apparent that Charleston now possesses a performance hall that can be counted among the country’s finest. ~ Adam Parker - The Post and Courier

The New York Philharmonic creates some of the most incredible music in the world,” Mr. Heatherwick said in a statement, “so it deserves a world-class concert hall.” ~ Thomas Heatherwick - Heatherwick Studios

But the news that he will open the new hall means that the Philharmonic is truly committing to Mr. van Zweden, who will also have to lead the orchestra through two nomadic stretches during construction. After that, he’ll deserve our thanks — as will Ms. Borda, who has suggested that this project will be the capstone of her career. New York music lovers will owe them both big time and want to cheer their success.

Maybe over a drink in the new bistro." ~ Anthony Tommasini - New York Times

The poignancy of each song’s performance was accentuated by the silently attentive audience and the intimate comfort and excellent acoustics of this underappreciated gorgeous theater. The soft lighting and rotating visual backdrops added a classic touch to the presentations as well. It was a perfect setting and one that made Isbell fans feel as honored to be in attendance as the honoree.” - Music City Mike

Oscar-nominated documentarian Ken Burns joined Belmont University President Bob Fisher Wednesday in unveiling two guitars signed by many of the country music artists who were interviewed for Burns' upcoming eight-part film, "Country Music," at the school's Gallery of Iconic Guitars.” ~ Andrew Wigdor - Nashville Tennessean

That magnitude also put the new hall to perhaps its first serious acoustical test, which it passed with flying colors. In fact, the new facility seems designed exactly for this kind of big, glorious sound. ~ Peter Ingle - Charleston Today

The acoustics in the new theater are absolutely incredible. The concert was conducted beautifully by our new music director, Ken Lam, and being able to collaborate with the brilliant Yo-Yo Ma was truly inspiring. ~ Yuriy Bekker - Concertmaster Charleston Symphony Orchestra

The Theatre Factory: Theatre for a New Audience's Polonsky Shakespeare Center is a classically flexible space ~ Lighting & Sound America by: David Barbour

On March 5th starts the season 2015 for the Philharmonic Orchestra of Minas Gerais in their new concert hall.
"It is hardly traditionally rectangular, but has a large space, which helps spread the sound. Similarly, it is not an arena, a terrace, but has a format that facilitates the distribution of the audience. In terms of division of seats, is undoubtedly one of the best in the world, " - Michael Bar

I can hear myself so much more clearly and I can hear everyone else more clearly, even across the stage” - Assistant Concertmaster Karen Strittmatter Galvin - North Carolina Symphony

"When the Sky Is No Limit … Taymor’s ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ Opens Brooklyn Theater (A theater review)

Theater for a New Audience Opens New Quarters in Brooklyn ...

Peeling Off Layers to Find an Underlying Truth: Christian Gerhaher and Gerold Huber at Park Avenue Armory - September 30, 2013

Restored Board of Officers Room Is to Open at the Armory

In Space You Can Still Hear The Drones: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ‘Oktophonie’ at the Park Avenue Armory

Las Vegas Becomes as Much Liszt as Liberace...

Review: St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Opens Its New Concert Hall ~ New York Times by: Anthony Tommasini

Lincoln Center to Rename Avery Fisher Hall - “This unties the Gordian knot,” Katherine G. Farley, Lincoln Center’s chairwoman, said of the agreement. ~ The New York Times by: Robin Pogrebin

"From a seat on the aisle, the Saenger Theatre's restoration is a smash hit ..."

'A joyful noise! Marsalis' 'Abyssinian Mass' swings into the Saenger ...

In Dixwell, a neighborhood buffeted by need in the shadows of Yale, he (artist Titus Kaphar) is rewriting the script with NXTHVN (for “Next Haven”), a $12 million nonprofit arts incubator and fellowship program he founded to nurture rising talents. The enterprise is housed in two once-moribund factory buildings that are being reimagined by the architect Deborah Berke, dean of the Yale School of Architecture." Patricia Leigh Brown, New York Times

Signature Theater will become the first New York City theater company to receive the noncompetitive Tony Award recognizing a regional American theater!

"King Lear Opens in Brooklyn ... Shakespeare Reimagined, Once Quietly, and Once Very Loud"

“Dave actually said, ‘You know, everyone is going to want to play here.’ I was like, ‘Well, it usually takes time; the word has to get out.’ He was like, ‘No, you don’t understand. It’s going to be instant, it’s going to be crazy, you’re not even going to have enough dates. … Everyone is gonna wanna play this place!” - I.M.P. founder Seth Hurwitz

The new Gaillard Center will enable well-established organizations such as Spoleto Festival and the Charleston Symphony to do better by taking advantage of a proper concert hall with improved acoustics and all the right equipment backstage. ~ Adam Parker - The Post and Courier

Verdi’s Requiem begins with a soft, forlorn descending line for cellos that is picked up by the other strings and turned into a sighing series of chords, as the chorus in sotto voce sings the single word: “Requiem.” Here, the string playing was so hushed and tender that, in near darkness, you were almost unsure you were hearing anything at all. Yet every note of each aching string sonority came through.” ~ Anthony Tommasini - New York Times

"In the case of last night’s Art Garfunkel’s concert ... which not only let me experience the incredible acoustics of the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater at the Tobin, but took me back in time almost 50 years through his music – and of course the music of Simon and Garfunkel." ~ Rivard Report by: Alan Weinkrantz

SPCO's new Ordway Concert Hall is an acoustic wonderland ~ Pioneer Press by: Chris Hewitt

“The acousticians have been at the table since Day 1 in the design process and every step of the way in the building phase. We promised the finest acoustics ... Acoustics is everything.” ~ Bruce Bugg Jr., chairman of the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation

The new Tobin Center for the Performing Arts aims to offer something for everyone.

First in our minds is that Music Hall has an acoustic character that is very much loved by people. There are qualities about the room, particularly of reverberation, warmth and richness, that we want to retain and build upon.” ~ Paul Scarbrough - Akustiks

Neither Charleston nor New Orleans is short on cultural opportunities, but this fall the cities’ creative landscapes get even richer with the completion of two new theater projects.” ~ Elizabeth Hutchison - Garden and Gun

Akustiks has been working with Stages for Success to make improvements for an auditorium at a public school in Far Rockaway, Queens, a community that was hard hit by Super Storm Sandy.

The Ordway Concert Hall is not just a hand-in-glove artistic fit for the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, but a psychological home, too. ~ Star Tribune by: Kristin Tillotson

There was another significant milestone in the world of San Antonio arts this week, and it was at the nearly finished Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.

Last October, Foo Fighters belted out the lyrics of their latest single, “Sky Is a Neighborhood,” to a sellout crowd of 6,000 at the opening night of Washington, D.C.’s newest music venue, The Anthem: “Gotta get to sleep somehow/Bangin’ on the ceiling/Keep it down!” But nobody in the adjacent apartment towers was doing any bangin’. They couldn’t hear a peep.” - MATT HURWITZ - MIX

Diana Ross Headlines Brooklyn Theater's Grand-Reopening: Concert Review "...it now once again looks magnificent, with its gorgeous interiors featuring terrific sightlines and superb acoustics."~ The Hollywood Reporter by: Frank Scheck

“The acoustic numbers were so clear, the piano rich, overall the Tobin’s acoustics were top rate,” San Antonio acoustic and classical guitarist and teacher George Gaytan said. “It was like we were like hearing a live show with headphones on. As a musician, I could even single (out) each instrument at times, which is rare at most venues.”

... the nearby Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is readying for the thousands of guests expected to flock to Nashville when it opens ...

Country Music Hall of Fame experiences boom time!

Diana Ross Christens Renovated Loew’s Kings Theatre in Brooklyn. Ross herself was impressed with the space. “Isn’t this palace beautiful?” she asked. “I feel like a queen!” ~ The Wall Street Journal by: Kathryn Lurie

Beautiful, aurally sumptuous Concert Hall opens at the Ordway ~ Twin Cities Daily Planet by: Basil Considine