Recent acoustic upgrades in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Performing Arts Center

Dawn Schuette

The Kimmel Performing arts Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA opened in late 2001. In 2011, the year of its tenth anniversary, acoustic upgrades occurred within Verizon Hall, the 2500-seat concert hall at the heart of the Kimmel Center, resulting in noted positive changes in the room’s sound. These improvements include: increased projection and presence for the Fred J Cooper Memorial Organ; enhanced on-stage ensemble hearing conditions; increased full-frequency response for the organ, orchestra, and chorus; improved tonal quality for the sound-reinforcement system; and notable improvement in sound level and presence from the stage. The cumulative result is a perception of enhanced reverberation and presence for non-amplified events and a better sense of balance and clarity for amplified presentations. Final analysis of test data will indicate whether the changes have resulted in an increase in reverberation level or longer reverberation time. This paper will present an overview of the architectural changes and the results of the detailed analysis of the testing performed before and after the changes were implemented.

Mots clés: Concert Hall; Renovation

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Dawn Schuette. Recent acoustic upgrades in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Performing Arts Center. Acoustics 2012, Apr 2012, Nantes, France. ⟨hal-00811088⟩