Page 46 - Winter 2011

Fig. 3 Panel Discussion
Mahler’s song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde, arranged for twen- ty-piece chamber orchestra. The next morning, a panel of faculty members compared their listening impressions from the previous evening’s concert (See Fig. 3). There were some significant differences in the sound depending on the listen- er’s location within the auditorium, with listeners in the bal- cony reporting the best sound.
Our third listening experience was in the Lensic Theater, a former vaudeville theater and movie palace in downtown Santa Fe. The Lensic has been converted to multi-use auditorium with a full fly stage and an audience capacity of 820. The stage has a complete concert shell, used for concerts by the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and smaller ensembles. For symphonic and chamber music per- formances the Lensic has a reverberation enhancement sys- tem built by Acoustic Control Systems (ACS). Arthur van Maurik of ACS arranged for a 5-piece brass ensemble to perform while CHRG participants listened to the music with and without the reverberation enhancement system.
Since this was a private demonstra- tion, we were free to move around and listen from different parts of the audience area and stage. Most people agreed there were no cues that the sound was being enhanced by loud- speakers. We also had the opportuni- ty to ask the musicians about their experience and impressions of the system. One of the players also per- forms in the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and he said the orchestra would not be able to use the Lensic Theater were if not for the reverber- ation enhancement system.
This was an international confer- ence with attendees from Argentina Chile, England, Hong Kong, Spain, and Sweden. The 20 student participants came from eight different universities.
Many students received scholarships, five of which were pro- vided by the Acoustical Society of America and Institute for Acoustics for the Performing Arts in honor of Russell Johnson and one by RPG Diffusor Systems. We also had a special guest—Charles Schmid, Executive Director of the Acoustical Society of America.
Faculty presenters included Neil Shade, Rick Talaske, Scott Pfeiffer, Damian Doria, David Kahn, Russ Altermatt, Bob Essert, Ann Minors (Theater Consultant), Paul Scarborough, and Steven Ovitzsky, general manager of the Santa Fe Music Festival. Carl Rosenberg presented a paper written by Chris Jaffe, who could not attend. We also had a special lecture by architectural historian, Victoria Newhouse, analyzing how the success of concert halls and other arts facilities is related to the degree of involvement of the end users with the design team.
One afternoon was devoted to a design challenge which involved placing a concert hall and opera house inside a huge abandoned structure once used to park dirigibles (See Fig. 4).
Fig. 2 Production Director Paul Horpedahl leading the discussion from the stage of the Santa Fe Opera
42 Acoustics Today, January 2011