The highly-anticipated Schermerhorn Symphony Center, named in honor of the late Maestro Kenneth Schermerhorn who led the Nashville Symphony for 22 years, opened in September of 2006 and is home to the critically acclaimed Nashville Symphony. The Nashville Symphony perform more than 100 classical, pops and special concert events each season and will present recitals, choral concerts, cabaret, jazz and world music events.
Known as "Music City," Nashville is one of the South’s fastest-growing and most vibrant cities, internationally renowned for its rich musical heritage and vibrant musical life. Schermerhorn Symphony Center will join other notable Nashville attractions, including the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum, historic Ryman Auditorium, the world famous Grand Ole Opry, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Vanderbilt and Fisk universities and the city’s lively "honky-tonks."
Construction for Schemerhorn Symphony Center began in December 2003 and under three years later, the doors opened to the public on September 9, 2006. Schermerhorn Symphony Center is located on a full city block in downtown Nashville’s rapidly developing SoBro (South of Broadway) neighborhood and at the terminus west of the Shelby Street Pedestrian Bridge.
The design of Schermerhorn Symphony Center was inspired by some of the world’s great concert halls, many of which were built in Europe in the late 19th century. Its shoebox designed 1,860-seat Laura Turner Concert Hall is one of the few halls nationwide to feature natural interior light through 30 special soundproof windows. With 600 fewer seats than the Tennessee Performing Arts Center’s Jackson Hall, the Nashville Symphony’s previous home, Schermerhorn Symphony Center provides audiences and musicians with a more intimate setting. The seats are distributed over three levels, including a special choral loft behind the stage, which can seat up to 146 chorus members or audience members during non-choral performances. The stage can accommodate up to 115 musicians.
Designed to present a variety of musical genres, including classical, pops, cabaret, choral, jazz and blues performances, the hall provides vivid acoustical clarity, warmth and reverberance specifically catering to the sound of natural instruments. To accommodate a variety of sounds, an automated system of moveable banners and panels located around the hall can adjust the acoustics for various types of performances.
The hall also features a custom-built concert organ, crafted by Schoenstein & Co. of San Francisco, comprised of 47 voices, 64 ranks and 3,617 pipes with three 32-foot stops that will create a lyrical sound with expressive range. The organ will be complete in September 2007.
One of the most innovative features of Schermerhorn Symphony Center is a convertible seating system that is designed to give the hall unique versatility. The orchestra level seating of the Laura Turner Concert Hall can be transformed from rows of comfortable raked seating at classical performances, to a 5,700-square-foot hardwood, ballroom floor, typically used for cabaret-style events such as pops and jazz concerts. A unique chair wagon motorized system will lower rows of seats into a special storage space below the surface of the ballroom floor. This convertible system gives the concert hall great flexibility for numerous types of events throughout the year. In addition, a system of 102 computerized lights will be able to focus, change color and direct their beams to any part of the concert hall rapidly and in synchronization.
In addition to the state-of-the-art concert hall, Schermerhorn Symphony Center houses the Mike Curb Family Music Education Hall, the home to the Symphony’s ongoing education initiative "Every Child, Every Grade, Every Year." With the new Center, the Symphony is able to promote music education and appreciation to children, parents and teachers, and is accessible during the day as well as for pre- and post-performance events.
The new building also has a public garden and cafe, enclosed by a colonnade, which is connected to the west side of the building. Facing Hall of Fame Park across Fourth Avenue South, the garden is opened to the public throughout the day and during concerts.
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