Kimmel Center Completes $1.3 Million Acoustic Work in Verizon Hall

Anne Ewers, president and CEO of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, recently announced completion of a $1.3 million investment to upgrade Verizon Hall acoustics.

"We are extremely pleased with the results of our Verizon Hall acoustic project," said Ewers. "There is clarity of the winds and brass. The strings can now better hear each other from across the stage. There is an overall improved presence of sound in the Hall. Verizon Hall has been brought to its full glorious potential," said Ewers.

Acoustical improvements were a top-priority for Ewers as an essential component in Kimmel Center's Master Plan renovations and fulfilled a promise she made to Kimmel Center's resident companies. "First and foremost, we are home to eight resident companies," Ewers said.

Early reactions indicate that the acoustical upgrades in Verizon Hall are successful.

Peter Dobrin, Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and nationally noted classical music critic, said in a recent article, "But if any revelations emerged from this performance they concerned venue more than interpretation. The rehabilitated Verizon Hall - in this piece, from my seat in the first tier - was paradise. The ensemble had levels of presence and clarity it has never had. Verizon on this night generated something else new: pleasant reverberation. After a decade of acoustical fog, this is an extremely heartening development. An afterlife for orchestral sound, in all its various meanings, may be at hand."

The improvement was also apparent to Threshold Acoustics' Dawn Schuette who was the lead acoustician on the project. "...the overall power of the orchestra was wonderful," she remarked after attending a recent Philadelphia Orchestra rehearsal.

In the past, some classical musicians and enthusiasts questioned Verizon Hall acoustics. Several tweaks had been made over the years; however in 2008, Ewers and Kimmel Center leadership engaged Threshold Acoustics to embark upon a reassessment and acoustical adjustment to the Hall to further perfect and refine quality.

Threshold's Schuette enlisted a special acoustical committee formed by the Kimmel Center which was comprised of musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra Association administrators, and Kimmel Center production and operations department staff to "listen" to the Hall. Schuette and her staff would make temporary modifications to the Hall using a variety of weighted wooden boards. Once the planks were in place, Schuette would call the committee into a Verizon Hall "listening" session.

"We continued to make adjustments in the Hall until we and musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra determined that we had made significant progress with improved sound quality," said Schuette. It took several listening sessions before Schuette and committee members were satisfied with the results."

The temporary modifications were made permanent in phases over the summers of 2010 and 2011 according to Daniela Voith of Voith & Mactavish Architects LLP who served as lead architect on the project. The modifications include:
Installation of new upstage masonry reflector walls behind an existing screen wall
New honeycomb reflectors within the wagons flanking the sides of the stage
New stage towers at the downstage entry areas
Modifications to the soffit and limited sections of the wall areas flanking the organ console at the Conductor's Circle
New fabric in the soffit below the organ
Reinforcement of the organ chamber ceiling

The newly shaped walls refine reflections on stage, provide improved projection and support into the Hall, and provide surface diffusion to avoid harsh reflections. The new curved honeycomb sandwich panels, which were inserted into the steel structures of the existing seating wagons are light enough to allow for easy operation of the wagons, but rigid in their construction and reflect full frequency sound. The new moveable downstage towers provide a narrower stage redirecting energy on stage for communication as well as into the audience. These towers are also constructed of honeycomb and plywood to allow for easy operation while maintaining rigidity and relatively substantial mass. Modifications to the Conductor's Circle complement onstage changes and improve hearing conditions for onstage performers as well as choral singers and organists.

"Verizon Hall is a world-renowned concert venue as well as the home of The Philadelphia Orchestra and our array of visiting orchestras and recitalists. Ensuring superlative sound quality is vital to the mission of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts," said Ewers.

Committee members plan to continue a year-long listening period and will suggest adjustments throughout the year.

Kimmel Center, Inc., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center. Kimmel Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the University of the Arts' Merriam Theater. Our mission is to operate a world-class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience from throughout the Greater Philadelphia region.

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