Acoustical design of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music

Abstract

The auditorium of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music was planned for both classical music concerts and lyric performances in the newly constructed conservatorium in the Southbank of Brisbane, Australia. The retractable orchestra shell is moved forward to the proscenium on the stage, and forms a shoebox style concert space with 643 seats. Small doors are installed on the orchestra shell for acoustical fine tuning in the stage space. Absorptive materials appear when the doors are opened. In lyric performances, the orchestra shell is retracted backward. The frontal area of the stage floor is sunk as an orchestra pit. The reverberation time becomes short, from 2.0 to 1.6 s, with retracting the orchestra shell, and varies by 0.3 s with acoustic curtains on the audience side walls for both concert and lyric use. The acoustical design and characteristics of the auditorium and players’ preference on the acoustical tuning elements are reported in this paper.