“Musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra gave high marks to their new $42 million hall on Wednesday,” writes Kristin Tillotson in Thursday’s (1/9) Star Tribune (Minneapolis). Concertmaster Steven Copes said of the 1,100-seat Ordway Center Concert Hall, due to open February 28, “ ‘Even warming up, you can tell right away the space is responsive to the sound. And it’s beautiful, all those undulating lines.’ … The hall’s most striking features [are] a ceiling covered in graceful, wavy panels of mahogany-stained dowels and alabaster-colored side walls with bas-relief, abstract cylindrical shapes…. The hall was built by the Arts Partnership, a group made up of the Ordway and its three principal users, the SPCO, the Minnesota Opera and the Schubert Club…. Bruce Coppock, SPCO president, called the day ‘an emotional one for me. We’ve been working on making this happen for 15 years.’ The orchestra, which performs about half its concerts at other metro venues, previously played at the larger, adjacent Music Theater, which seats 1,900.” The hall’s architect is Tim Carl of the Minneapolis firm HGA and the acoustical designer is Paul Scarbrough. The newspaper’s video report on the new hall is here.
Posted January 9, 2015
