When the "sun" comes up in the Strathmore concert hall, the lights slowly turn on and illuminate the darkened performance space. When people witness it for the first time, Eliot Pfanstiehl, president and CEO of Strathmore, said they respond in one of two ways to the sight before their eyes — "Wow," and, "Oh my God."
The hall’s gently undulating, perforated ceiling rises as it recedes from the stage, masking a hollow chamber above that absorbs the sound coming from the stage. Below, whether in the floor orchestra seats, in one of the three tiers, or in the choral tier behind the stage, hall patrons feel encompassed, encircled by the music and by the warmth of the intimate hall.
For Hampton Childress, who has been playing bass with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for 24 years and has played in concert halls across the country, the greatness of Strathmore’s hall lies in the way the musician can hear him or her self "as separate from the other instruments in the orchestra," Childress said. "The sense of throw that your instrument has off the stage, the sense of power that the orchestra has; even when you’re close to it, in the middle of it, on this stage, it feels…not overwhelming. You have a sense of your dynamic."
ABOVE THE ORCHESTRA hangs a shield of 43 acoustical reflector panels. Backstage, a technician manipulates and modifies the direction of each of the individual panels, allowing the audience to simultaneously distinguish among the light, soprano sounds of the flute, the deep, resonating baritone of the bass and the softness and power of a human voice.
Off the stage or on, the range of pitches and sounds — high, low, forte, piano — the audience can hear is as varied and numerous as the performances presented in this hall. The lights emit a barely audible hum in an empty hall; when they’re cut, there is a silence just as lush as the sound of a Tchaikovsky concerto. Extraneous noise — the droning of air conditioning or the whimpering of a small child — are gone.
Air conditioning ducts, which in so many halls blow on patrons from above, are located under Strathmore’s seats. And if an audience member comes with a small child, who may not enjoy the performance as much as his or her parent, they can go to the soundproof family room, located on the second tier, and still watch the performance on stage.
Michael Lisicky who plays the oboe and is now starting his second season with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, describes the Strathmore Hall as being "acoustically quite different from the Meyerhoff Hall [in Baltimore]. Here you feel much more exposed. The louds can be a lot louder and the softs can be softer," he said.
There are no chandeliers, no torch-red seats. Instead there are 1,976 aubergine (French for eggplant) colored seats, 24,000 square feet of maple wood floors, 19,000 square feet of custom white birch wall paneling, and soft, glowing lighting. Larry Kierkegaard, who designed the acoustics for the Strathmore Hall, wanted those who pass through it to experience "a big warm hug," according to Childress.
IT IS IN THIS SPACE that the Strathmore organization and its five fiscally independent founding partners, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (BSO) at Strathmore, the Washington Performing Arts Society (WPAS), the National Philharmonic, the Levine School of Music, the CityDance Ensemble, the Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra (MCYO) and InterPLAYcompany, have performed more than 193 public shows since the hall’s opening in February 2005.
The six partners offer a rich and extensive set of programs throughout the year with series like the Great American Songs Series presented by Strathmore organization, the Symphony with a Twist Series presented by the BSO at Strathmore, Symphonic Blockbusters presented by the National Philharmonic, performances by MCYO and interPLAYcompany, and collaborative performances by the CityDance Ensemble and the Levine School of Music.
The Strathmore stage is versatile, accommodating orchestra instruments, guitars, banjos, fiddles, solo pianos, operas, and dancers, among others. The stage can fit 121 chorus members on its wooden risers and can expand to accommodate 480 more. It has room for 120 musicians and 100-plus spaces for instrument cases backstage — on ground and hanging shelves, and propped up against the wall. It has a rubber floor beneath the external hardwood one to allow dancers to perform onstage without hurting their legs.
YET STRATHMORE HALL is not only a performance space; it is also an educational space, extending the performing arts learning that goes on in the Educational Center all the way down to the concert hall stage.
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, which has been doing educational programming for more than 80 years, offers three types of educational concerts at Strathmore: Tiny Tots, for pre-kindergarten to kindergarten children, Prime Time, for children in grades 1-3, and Music for Youth concerts for children in grades 4-8. These performances, offered in partnership with the Maryland Music Educators Association (MMEA) and the Maryland State Department of Education, are designed especially for children and include a broad repertoire of musical works. The programs, which feature guest artists like the Bob Brown Puppets, the Enchantment Theater Company and others, mingle music with other forms of artistic expression and consider the intellect, sensitivity, appetite for learning and age of the young audiences, according to Lisa A. Sheppley, the director of education for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.