How Architect Frank Gehry Changed the Way We Listen to Music

In Friday’s (12/5) Los Angeles Times, Mark Swed writes an appreciation of architect Frank Gehry, who died on December 5 at age 96. “Walt Disney Concert Hall, which was built for and by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and opened in 2003 was, of course, his crowning achievement…. Disney is the most spectacular example of what Gehry’s halls have meant for music. But every one has made a huge difference to the art form, to music and musicians and audiences, to our youth and to our institutions. His buildings are meant for imagination while amplifying tradition. They guide us to the next step…. Disney, with stunning acoustics, proved both a place of modernity for a new millennium and one of the world’s most acoustically engaging venues. It is very new and very traditional … His hall at Bard College became a venue for the most imaginative summer music festival in country. Education … has been at the heart of Gehry’s musical activities … He turned an abandoned bank and burger joint into the celebrated Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood … The Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin was his gift to Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, bringing together young musicians from Israel and Arab countries. Gehry’s latest musical masterpiece, the 1,000-seat Colburn Center, is currently going up across the street from Disney…. The revolution Gehry began in creating spaces where music can be made and re-imagined and brought to life in ever new ways has caught on.”