Flexible acoustics for two purpose-built organ recital halls

Abstract

It is rare today for any purpose-built music performance spaces to be commissioned, be they opera houses, concert halls, organ recital halls, etc. In order for any performance venue to be truly successful today, it must have flexibility included in its design, allowing the space to function well for the wide range of performance types that will inevitably be scheduled. The same can be said for purpose-built pipe-organ recital halls. While the highest design priority might be organ music, all but the most esoteric of these rooms will also be required to support far more than pipe-organ music. This paper will discuss two ‘‘purpose-built’’ pipe-organ recital halls with flexible acoustics devices which allow these spaces to function well for uses other than pipe-organ recitals. North Hall at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD, is now used primarily as a pipe-organ recital hall for a new Holtkamp tracker organ. This hall also continues to function as a rehearsal room for large ensembles. The University of Northern Iowa is building a multi-purpose 125-seat organ recital hall and choral rehearsal room. This hybrid space uses additional partially coupled volumes to better support a new Hellmuth Wolff tracker organ.