Do we fancy one of these?

Just saw this and thought I'd blog!

Outdoor concert 'bandstands' get a bit of a re-think here

Musical experimentations in the Nazarene

We had the opportunity to gather music students and musicians into the currently disused church to allow us to hear a wide range of musical and vocal performances within the space. They were also happy to play in different locations around the room, which allowed us to find out what sort of acoustic environment the church currently provides as it stands. We were all impressed by the quality of sound that could be produced and we were excited about the possibilities for multiple points of focus that the church could allow.

An Architectural & Musical Retrospective

Acoustics Testing in The Church of the Nazarene

Performers from the Music Department played music to test the acoustics in the Church on Wed 28th Oct 2009. One of them is Charlie Hardwick who played a small piece for cello.

Eastgate Theatre & Arts Centre by Richard Murphy

Source: http://www.richardmurphyarchitects.com/projects/269/

This building could be one of the precedents exploring the possibility of a side entrance of the new performance space.

A church in Peebles was converted into an arts centre with a 250 seat auditorium.

The main entrance of the arts centre was opened at the side of the building while the entrance façade of the church remains virtually the same.

As the architect described, ‘The design has been developed on the strong belief that the presence of the theatre should be evident from the exterior rather than simply discovered on the inside of an otherwise unchanged church exterior.’

A different orientation of an entrance may highlight the new functionality of the architecture.

A night at City Hall, Sheffield

Last night I went to see the Buena Vista Social Club perform live at Sheffield City Hall. The concert was FABULOUS - brilliant Latin American performers - all singing, all dancing and playing their instruments superbly. The hall, which I'd never been into in concert conditions, was rather spectacular visually: a large oval room with an impressive decorative ceiling...but it was the first time I've been conscious of really annoying acoustics! It may have been just where we were sitting (third row from the front on the side, so a brilliant intimate position with the musicians; it would have been a vastly different experience to be in the 'miles-away' seats of the balcony) but the buzz of the percussion reflected back so that it was as if someone was just playing a fraction of a second out of time, or a clock was ticking really loudly, out of sync with the music...and being latin music, there was a lot of percussion! Once I'd figured out what it was, it was sadly really quite distracting! Fortunately, it didn't however detract from what was otherwise a great night...but I think I preferred the acoustic condition in the much more intimate surroundings of Cubana, where we all went, with the musicians, to dance after...though I admit you'd be hard pressed to get 2271 people in the small club! It was a great night in the name of 'research'!

Lunchtime Concert

Today we experienced a performance from the Mick Beck Stephen Grew Duo, who kicked off the first in the season of University Luchtime Concerts. Stephen Grew was on the piano and Mick Beck played a mixture of the tenor sax, bassoon and whistles. The two created a series of interesting, experimental and improvised pieces within the intimate location of the drama studio.