The Sala Sinfonica Pablo Casals, the new home of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico, is set to open this October in San Juan. The 1,300-seat hall, designed by Rodolfo Fernández and named after cellist and conductor Pablo Casals, will be home to chamber and popular music presentations as well as symphonic concerts. The hall shares an existing plaza that includes a large multipurpose auditorium and a smaller drama theater. The Sala Sinfonica includes acoustical work by Acentech’s Studio A, the company created after a recent merger between Acentech—an acoustics/audiovisual systems design/vibration consulting firm—and Christopher Jaffe, the renowned performing-arts acoustical designer whose projects include Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and Opera House. The Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico’s first concert in the new space, led by Music Director Maximiano Valdés, will include Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2, with Kirill Gerstein as soloist.
Posted October 1, 2009
