Stages with high ceilings, pipe organs, and active acoustics

Abstract

Two case studies are presented of rooms that have a high ceiling over the stage to accommodate a pipe organ. Svetlanov hall is the principal venue of Moscow's International Performing Arts Center. It has two to four rows of chorus seating on two levels at stage left and right. The upstage wall is occupied by the largest pipe organ in Russia. It has a physical reverberation time of 1.7 s, which is within the accepted range for symphonic music, but longer reverberation times would be preferred for some pipe organ repertoire. Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center at California Polytechnic State University has a proscenium and thrust stage. The Forbes Pipe Organ is housed on the stage right wall of the thrust stage. The symphony usually performs on the thrust stage entirely in front of the proscenium with the solid decorative fire curtain down. Both rooms had poor communication on stage between performers, which led them to implement a solution using active acoustics. In both rooms all of the active acoustic elements overhead of the stage are on motors and can be retracted when not in use.