A Home for Music in Sheffield: Snape Maltings Concert Hall

About This Live Project

The Church of the Nazarene on Victoria Street, Sheffield, is currently a disused, grade II listed building owned by the University. Despite the music department moving into the adjacent Jessop building and new, purpose-built SoundHouse, they are still lacking a space for performance. The vision is to adapt the empty church into a licensed performance space for music, which can become a home for music and a face for musicians to present their music to the city of Sheffield.

The music department engages in a diverse range of performing activities from classical chamber music, to opera and contemporary music theatre, including world music performance, electroacoustic music and mixed media. The proposed performance space will be central to the day to day functioning (rehearsing, performing, teaching) as well as knowledge transfer and community activities, of the music department. Ensemble in residence Ensemble 360 and world music performer in residence John Ball would perform there, along with a steady stream of internationally acclaimed visiting performers.

Friday, 2 October 2009

Snape Maltings Concert Hall

Here's another example of an old building that has been renovated into a concert hall.

Built by Newson Garrett in the mid-19th century, the 832-seat Snape Maltings Concert Hall began life as a malthouse. Officially opened in 1967 by HM Queen Elizabeth II, the Hall suffered serious fire damage two years later, re-opening in time for the Aldeburgh Festival the following year.

Although on a much larger scale than the Church of Nazarene, this example demonstrates how the character of the original building can enhance the experience of its new use.

2 comments:

Oliver Cartwright said...: Interesting precedent. Though I wonder if the brick walls became a problem in terms of unwanted reverberation... Also I cannot spot any visible acoustic treatments - excluding the natural properties of the materials; 2 October 2009 at 22:04
Martin said...: Look at the recent Haworth Tompkins Britten Studio also at Snape - faceted concrete and timber panelling does the acoustic, with adjustable shutters and drapes too; 18 October 2009 at 21:22