Doing Their Jobs In Nashville

Like most of the Nashville area, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC), home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra (NSO), is enduring the impact of severe floods. Located less than a few thousand feet from the banks of the Cumberland River, the SSC did endure intense flooding. I spoke with NSO president & CEO Alan Valentine, via cell phone yesterday afternoon to obtain the following details… (more…)

Damn You Alex Ross!

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… (more…)

Orchestral Acoustics 102: Orchestra vs. Hall

In a recent blog post, Washington Post music critic, Ann Midgette, posed questions concerning:

1. what influence a hall’s acoustic response has on orchestral performance technique, and
2. 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… (more…)

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… (more…)

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…

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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…

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All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 6

The final article in this series examining Nashville’s new Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) will explore the donor’s lounge, board room, green room, and inside the concert hall… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 5

Although we spent an entire week during the month of September taking a virtual tour around Nashville Symphony’s new $123.5 million Schermerhorn Symphony Center, we didn’t quite get all the way through. As such, it is high time to resume the final two articles in this series. This installment will continue by examining the SSC’s multitude of lobby and patron facilities… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 4

Picking up where we left off in Part 3, this installment in the series examining the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) in Nashville, TN will examine the musician facilities, back stage facilities, box office, and dressing rooms… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 3

Following on the heels of Part 1 and Part 2 in this series examining the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) in Nashville, TN, this installment will continue by examining the administration offices, education facilities, and one of the center’s more unique components, a fully equipped commercial kitchen… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 2

Part 1 in this series examining the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, TN focused attention on the music library facilities. This installment will continue by examining the SSC’s recording facilities… (more…)

All About The Schermerhorn Symphony Center Part 1

Regular Adaptistration readers know that the Nashville Symphony’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center (SSC) project has been the focus of several articles here since 2003. Those articles have examined just about everything there is to know behind how and why their new facility’s evolution. Now that the SSC is a reality it is time to take a detailed look into as many nooks and crannies as we can to see exactly what those labors have produced…

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