“In 2012, the La Jolla Music Society learned that Sherwood Auditorium in La Jolla would be torn down,” writes George Varga in Sunday’s (3/31) San Diego Union-Tribune. “The society had rented the 492-seat auditorium every August since 1986 for its acclaimed SummerFest chamber-music extravaganza. It had also used the auditorium for fall, winter and spring concerts…. The 51-year-old organization is poised to celebrate [with] the Friday opening of its new La Jolla home—the $82 million Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center.… The 49,200-square-foot center is designed by New England-based Epstein Joslin Architects Inc. Yasuhisa Toyota, the president of Nagata Acoustics America, is the head acoustician.… The Conrad houses two performance venues. The Baker-Baum Concert Hall has a capacity of 513, while The JAI can accommodate … 116 people seated at tables, 170 in rows of chairs, or 300 standing. [Principal architect] Alan Joslin … describes the Baker-Baum Concert Hall as ‘a wooden nest that floats inside of the concrete and masonry of the hall.’ … The Conrad’s opening weekend … begins Friday with … classical violin star Hilary Hahn; ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro; ‘jookin’ dancer Lil Buck; pianist (and new SummerFest music director) Inon Barnatan.”
Posted April 2, 2019
Image: Architectural rendering of one of the concert halls at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center in La Jolla, California, new home of the La Jolla Music Society.
