V.com weekend vote: Do you like your local symphony hall?

September 14, 2025 at 05:31 PM · We are fortunate in Boston to have at least three world-class halls.

September 14, 2025 at 06:58 PM · I know brutalisim gets a lot of hate, but I love my local Christchurch Town Hall. Not the best acoustically, but it has a place in my heart.

September 14, 2025 at 10:25 PM · Yes! I'm fortunate and grateful that Severance Hall is a few minutes down the road. It's amazing in the audience and a dream to play on the stage. I've been to quite a few halls around the country and Severance is a class of its own.

Maltz Performing Arts Center is near Severance and wonderful. EJ Thomas Hall is also lovely venue in the region.

September 15, 2025 at 12:35 AM · I have to admit I haven't been been to the SAFE Credit Union Performing Arts Center since it was renovated (reopened 2021), because long COVID has limited my concert attendance. The acoustics and sight lines were not great prior to the renovation; supposedly they're much improved.

But we also have a world-class concert hall in the area in the Mondavi Center at UC Davis. It's the most frequently used venue for orchestras coming to the Sacramento area on tour. I've performed there with the UC Davis orchestra, and also heard the San Francisco Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields there. It probably has the best acoustics of any concert hall I've ever been in, just edging out Disney Hall in Los Angeles. For me the only negative is that it's rather isolated: it's on the opposite side of the university campus from Davis, so restaurants and other amenities are some distance away, and it's not really public transit accessible because the bus lines going to it stop running before most concerts end.

September 15, 2025 at 03:20 AM ·

Portland has a fabulous Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. It's a conversion from an almost equally impressive movie theater. I've heard the Oregon Symphony there, and I've heard a recital with Itzhak Perlman and his piano accompanist. The acoustics were excellent in both cases.

In one concert with Perlman playing the Bruch 1st, I was clear up in the balcony to the far left, and it was as if Perlman and the Oregon Symphony were playing just for me. It was an inspiring experience.

See the link below. (The photos are mediocre at best, but they give the idea.)

https://www.portland5.com/arlene-schnitzer-concert-hall

September 15, 2025 at 05:16 AM · As from ~ Elisabeth Matesky re Concert Hall in our Community, Chicago! {#6}

I know our Concert Hall well having played in then Orchestra Hall and later in its new redo, Symphony Center, which made major designs and also changed the Acoustics substantially which many musicians and even non musicians argue about or express many varying opinions yet if not onStage of Orchestra, cum Symphony Center Hall, one really is at a true disadvantage in describing the Whole of the Hall opposed to a Concert Goer who sits in a known Hall yet Hears many notes and most differently in Sound projection. The Sound of *Orchestra Hall was, IMO, excellent and not hollow but whole and rounded which was Strings Friendly! There were many along with a New General Manager of the CSO, The CSO Home in Chicago, who felt Orchestra Hall needed to be 'Updated' ~ Watch Out for those tinkler's who wish changing that which Works to new That's which do Not Work and mess up the acoustics from the players onstage view & also hearing opposed to those Sound 'Yuppies' and who always have complaints or praises depending on Their Hearing or lack Thereof??!!

When complete, and it was way past due, at first I did Not like the Sound and saw technicians fussing with the Upper Ceiling on the main floor to no avail?? The Sound one had heard way back when was not at all the Same and seemed tinney or wirey for lack of better adjectives. I still am not keen on some sounds depending on where one sits and the Cost of Tickets is now so much higher many students end up sitting in the Top Balcony which is a dire place to be if one has vertigo! Seriously, it is So High one could Fall over if not for Railing in front of the entire front row Highest Balcony or as it is known, "The Peanut Gallery"!!! I once sat there writing up a very important Fund Raiser held by the CSO Players and Daniel Barenboim then Music Director, for Rachel Barton's Severe Injuries and I waited for our 'the Strad' NYC Editor to arrive getting dizzy!! We sat together focused on Rachel Barton's truly moving Fund Raiser and the repertoire performed with Danny Barenboim turning and looking Up to us in The Peanut Gallery to Salute the deeply injured Rachel. She looked so thin and so vulnerable in a WheelChair which made me cry when I got home late following the Concert and such a grand success for her and Epic Medical Bills. When trying to decide on Photographs taken, I sat on a Main Floor Seat looking at many with two of my CSO Colleagues, Betty Lambert, Violinist & Margie Evans, Cellist. Anyway we 3 poured over the photographs for The Article I was collaborating with and NYC Editor and I decided on several which fully represented all there to play to raise funds for very severely Injured Rachel Barton, later Pine due marriage ...

Comparing Orchestra Hall to Its former Self is now difficult due to one getting used to a newer sound version yet remembering the sheen and loveliness of rounded sounds from the Stage of The Original Orchestra Hall and newer Symphony Center Stage which has a Terrace behind the Orchestra so it holds more members of the Audience and offers an eyeball view of all Conductors coming to Chicago to Guest Conduct or a possible new Music Director yet when Daniel Barenboim took over from Sir Georg Solti, it was not new to him being On Stage having both Conducted and also played as a Piano Soloist with the CSO quite a bit so Sounds to him were not jarring to my knowledge as of this writing!

I would only offer one observation from the Five Replies above and I think they do reflect truths about Concert Halls, generally. It is a well known phenom that the First Concert Hall one hears some Symphonic Music in will be 'Home' to a listener of many years since childhood and the attachment to the Hall is almost Forever, like a Fav Baseball Team that one is from childhood & most loyal to! We've got many here in our City of Chicago who are Lifetime Cubs Fans no matter how badly or not too badly they play a Game! If messed up, Loyal Cubs Fans are armed with tons of Excuses or reasons they did not play well and one is resigned to kind comfort them if their beloved Team loses which quite frankly has usually been the case until they got 'Hot' in a recent Season and Finally, after 99 Years won consistently to appear in The coveted World Series and winning the Whole Thing!!! Go Cubbies!! And I am a Chicago White Sox Fan but when the Cubbies Won after 99 Years every person Alive in Chicago was Out on Michigan Ave raving and all hugging each other altho' Strangers didn't matter ~ Hugs were Galore!! Likewise, with one's Home Concert Hall ~ It Is 'Home' to Music first heard in many cases and beloved for it!! Thusly, to gage the truth about the GOAT Concert Halls in America and American Cities, is quite a dangerous Assignment and Laurie Niles has taken it on full steam ahead and I for one, am enjoying the V.com feedback of those having Replied and look forward to returning back to see New Replies!!!

~ ~ Thanking Editor, Laurie Niles, for a Subject Gem ~ ~

...................... Elisabeth Matesky ......................

Fwd ~ dmg {#6} Concert Hall Fav's EM Book File Save

September 15, 2025 at 06:23 AM · Dedicated venues for amateur or even professional music-making are scarce in the UK. In the last 18 months I've played or attended concerts in 7 churches, one town hall and a 17th century theatre "in the round". The best venue I've played in on a regular basis was a 1200-seat hall with "adaptable facilities to accommodate all types of events including concerts, shows, exhibitions, weddings, seminars and more ...moveable stage, acoustically balanced with lighting and sound equipment, fully equipped dressing rooms, easy equipment access and front of house and technical staff".

September 15, 2025 at 02:44 PM · Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp, Belgium!

September 15, 2025 at 03:53 PM · g live, its programming is so bad that I have never been to a concert there https://www.guildford.gov.uk/article/26905/G-Live,

I get the train into london instead

September 15, 2025 at 06:04 PM · My local concert hall is a converted theatre from the 1920s and it’s ok for what it is. My cello teacher told me her favorite hall was in Cleveland. I really want to go there.

September 15, 2025 at 06:05 PM · Except for not wishing to inconvenience other concert-goers, I'd be quite content to die in Woolsey Hall, where some of the most precious moments of my life have been. The acoustics are wondrous, especially in the back center seats of the second balcony. If you want a newbie to actually see the orchestra and the face of the conductor, pick left or right and sit in the frontmost section of the main balcony. If you want to look up at the concert master and other frontline players, sit front orchestra. If you want to gaze at the exquisite columned construction, the ranks of organ pipes (up to 32') and ceiling ornamentation, sit rear canter main balcony. If you want to hear great orchestral or organ music, sit anywhere!

September 15, 2025 at 06:22 PM · Duke University has a beautiful 685-seat concert hall, Baldwin Auditorium, where they host the Duke Chamber Arts series, currently in its 80th year. Several years ago the hall was completely renovated for both acoustics and aesthetics. It has a huge dome over the audience which used to (literally) suck up the sound, but they installed a fairly ingenious acoustic reflector / projector that’s as beautiful and consistent with the aesthetic upgrades as it is functional. Just about every year, a group that hasn’t been here before will say during a concert something like “We weren’t quite sure what to expect in Durham North Carolina, but this is really one of the nicest halls we’ve played in” :-).

It’s pretty cool when the final result of a project like this seems prioritized over where money could be saved. Our symphony’s hall here is fine, for example, and much thought was put into acoustics, but it still seems a bit like a utilitarian product of government budget constraints.

https://www.perkinseastman.com/projects/duke-university-alice-m-baldwin-auditorium-renewal/

September 15, 2025 at 09:34 PM · Madrid has two main venues for professional symphonic music. The Orquesta Nacional de España is based at the Auditorio Nacional, built in the late 80s, which is also where most visiting orchestras play. There is a large and very comfortable hall with good sound and sightlines and a smaller hall for chamber music, both with organs. The RTVE Symphony Orchestra performs in the city-centre Teatro Monumental, which has a modern stage that looks OK on televised programmes, attached to the auditorium of a slightly random old cinema. Luckily, the sound is pretty good, and the 2nd Prokofiev violin concerto had its premiere here.

Both halls have several buses and a metro station at the door, and as the last trains leave the termini at 1.30 am there is no problem getting home after a concert and dinner. It's a great city for music!

September 16, 2025 at 12:41 PM · I just wanted to mention my favorite that my daughter gets to perform in. Jordan Hall at NEC, beautiful wood paneled and acoustics are great. Intimate.

September 17, 2025 at 11:55 AM · The Centre in the Square in Kitchener Ontario is one of the finest halls in Canada.It was built for the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony in the early eighties with the intention of staging Wagners Ring Cycle.That has never happened and now we cant even afford to play in our own hall( $20000.00 rental per concert).Its too small a venue for big rock groups passing through town and too expensive for the KWS.I wonder if it will eventually be torn down to make room for more condos.Very sad.

September 20, 2025 at 02:59 PM · One of the halls for our orchestra sounds famously bad; muffled, suppressed high frequencies, no reflector above the orchestra, with a brick and stone "picture frame" around the stage.

What is puzzling to me is that all of the local old 5 converted dual-use movie theaters (1920-1940's) sound great. They are medium sized venues, designed before modern acoustic engineering, and obviously not intended for live orchestras.

September 21, 2025 at 05:10 PM · I didn't vote, since I haven't yet been to my local venue, the Von Braun Center - Huntsville, AL, USA - mainly due to my schedule and the long driving distance. The hall is way across town from me. Most performances are in the evening, and by 8:30 PM, I'm already starting to fade. Then, too, as I've written before, I have a gut-level aversion to being on the road after dark.

Two other venues mentioned in the blog and earlier comments - Chicago's Symphony Hall and Boston's Symphony Hall - I know well. I played a couple of seasons in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the CSO's training school, during my degree program; and Symphony Hall was our place to rehearse and perform.

After my degree program had wrapped, I spent 18 years in Boston. Symphony Hall there had some of the the best acoustics I've ever experienced. And Boston is a great walking town. Any place I needed to be within the city limits, I walked or biked to it. The hall was a 10-minute walk, at most, from my door.