I had the pleasure of touring the Green Music Center today, still under construction, in Rohnert Park, a few miles south of Santa Rosa. It promises to be a very big improvement over the Luther Burbank Center (also known as the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts) in Santa Rosa. It will be the new home of the Santa Rosa Symphony, when they finally finish building it. I think the tours were designed to encourage new donations, as money appears to be an ongoing problem. I must say I was impressed. I'll probably donate again, so I guess the strategy worked.
It reminded me very much of Casals Hall, in Ochanomizu, Tokyo, but it is modeled after Tanglewood. Like Tanglewood, it has a back end that opens to allow outdoor listeners to enjoy concerts in good weather. The woodwork is beautiful. The stage is maple, the floors fir. The floor will not be carpeted, which is good for acoustics, but every moved foot, every dropped pen will be audible--along with the usual cough drop wrapper accompaniment, no doubt. (I'm sure I'm not the first to think of it, but I want to compose a short piece for cough, candy wrapper, shuffling feet, and program page.) That aside, it sounded good from what we could hear. The echo is terrible at the moment, but there are no seats in place yet, there was no audience, and every new hall takes a year or so to "tune." It promises to be very good. A pair of clarinetists was on hand to demonstrate the sound. They seemed enthusiastic about the hall from the performer's point of view.
No expense has been spared. The new hall seems to have everything, from world-class facilities for guest soloists and conductors (including rooms with private baths), to computer-controlled risers for the orchestra seating, and a climate-controlled area for storing instruments.
No expense has been spared. The new hall seems to have everything, from world-class facilities for guest soloists and conductors (including rooms with private baths), to computer-controlled risers for the orchestra seating, and a climate-controlled area for storing instruments.
In addition to the main performance hall, there is a spacious lobby (itself designed as an event space with enough seating to allow the entire orchestra to serenade the room from a second-floor balcony), a recital hall seating 250 (the main hall will seat 1,406, slightly fewer than the 1,560 the Luther Burbank Center seats--I hope I got the numbers right), classroom space, and more. The seating capacity is the one thing that is disappointing. I would have expected more seating, rather than less. The guide pointed out that the outdoor space will seat 3,000, but that will not be usable all year long, nor is the sound likely to be ideal.
Still, I'm optimistic. The facilities seem likely to attract some of the world's best performers. I just hope prices don't rise so much that it becomes unaffordable for all but the rich. They've already said parking will no longer be free (as it is at the Luther Burbank Center--sorry, Wells Fargo Center). The arts should be for all. That said, someone does have to pay for the arts. Here's to hoping that our community and surrounding communities can sustain this place.
The guides said that special tours can be arranged for out-of-town or overseas guests. Come visit me. Let's go. Art is all around. Let's drink it in.
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Those "two clarinetists" you said were there to demonstrate the sound look like Mary Kruzas and Roy Zajac. Roy is principle clarinetist with the SR Symphony. Mary plays with lots of different classical groups, and I think she was playing in the sax quartet when you came to my house for the quartet rehearsal. They are both excellent players!
ReplyDeleteCould be. I didn't recognize her, but that was a long time ago. They were both very good.
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