In Monday’s (1/9) Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California), Diane Peterson writes, “With the Green Music Center’s Weill Concert Hall set to open at Sonoma State University this fall, the Santa Rosa Symphony invited about 900 subscribers to the hall on Sunday to try out its custom chairs while symphony musicians performed onstage. ‘Basically, we’re giving our supporters the opportunity to test-drive the dream,’ said Alan Silow, executive director of the Santa Rosa Symphony. ‘It’s an interesting challenge for us.’ The European-style, shoebox-shaped hall was designed to emulate the acoustics of great halls such as the Musikverein in Vienna and Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, located in western Massachusetts. Subscribers will be assigned a seat based on their preferences when subscription renewals are sent out in early March. The Weill Concert Hall offers 1,420 seats, 160 fewer than the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, where the symphony currently performs. … Subscribers who attended the open house on Sunday were weighing a wide variety of factors, including accessibility, sightlines and financial considerations.”
Posted January 10, 2012
