Music Hall Construction to Start May 2013

Music Hall Revitalization Company Press Release

April 14, 2011

Contacts:        
Van Ackerman, Cincinnati Arts Association       
(513) 977-4108 or vackerman@cincinnatiarts.org
 
Chris Pinelo, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
(513) 744-3338 or cpinelo@cincinnatisymphony.org
 
Ashley Tongret, Cincinnati Opera
(513) 768-5526 or atongret@cincinnatiopera.org
 
Stacey Recht, Cincinnati Ballet
(513) 562-1137 or srecht@cballet.org
 
MUSIC HALL CONSTRUCTION TO START IN MAY OF 2013
Massive revitalization project of historic hall to be completed in October of 2014
 
CINCINNATI – The Music Hall Revitalization Company (MHRC) announced today that the construction timetable for the Music Hall revitalization project has been shifted by one year to allow for additional time to prepare for this hugely complex undertaking. The project is scheduled for completion in October of 2014.
 
"Construction will now start in May of 2013 to allow an appropriate amount of time to complete designs, assemble bid packages, and negotiate with suppliers and contractors,” said MHRC President Jack Rouse. "It would not be acting in a responsible manner if we started a project of this complexity without complete design documentation and working drawings, and without allowing sufficient time for bidding and negotiating.  This is a sound business decision. Our design team, which is made up of some of the world's preeminent experts, agrees that it is important to take time to explore all reasonable design solutions to this very complex building."
 
The project to revitalize this historic facility is massive in scale and involves all three of the connected buildings that comprise Music Hall. Plans call for much-needed replacement of the building’s electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, to make the hall more accessible and comfortable for audience members, and to reconnect the hall to the surrounding neighborhood and Washington Park, which is undergoing its own extensive renovation. The Music Hall Revitalization will modernize the facility’s systems while protecting and improving this landmark’s famous acoustics and reinforcing its reputation as a dynamic, world-class venue.
 
Last year, MHRC announced the selection of Ennead (formerly Polshek Partnership Architects) as the Music Hall Revitalization design architect. This firm’s major projects have included Carnegie Hall, The Santa Fe Opera Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ed Sullivan Theater, Stanford University Concert Hall, Rose Center for Earth and Space (Hayden Planetarium) at the American Museum of Natural History, Clinton Presidential Library, Brooklyn Museum renovation and dozens of other award-winning designs and renovations.

As coordinated by MHRC, Ennead architects have spent considerable time at Music Hall over the past year meeting with Music Hall tenants and are working closely with Jaffe Holden, an acoustical consulting firm has that worked on Severance Hall in Cleveland, the opera house and concert hall at Washington D.C.’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Carnegie Hall to ensure the highest acoustical standards are met in the revitalized hall. MHRC and Ennead are also working closely with Theatre Projects Consultants, a firm that has worked on the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Hollywood’s Kodak Theater, the Oslo Opera House, Theatre Royal in Nottingham, Brucknerhaus in Linz, Dance Theatre of São Paulo, and the Shanghai Symphony Hall as well as GBBN, a Cincinnati-based architectural firm which serves as the architect of record for the Music Hall project.
 
Adjusted Timetable Shifts Tenant Organizations’ Plans
Music Hall is managed by Cincinnati Arts Association, and houses numerous community events, concerts, graduations, conventions, galas, weddings and meetings. It is home for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras, May Festival and Cincinnati Opera, and will again host performances by Cincinnati Ballet. These organizations along with the Society for the Preservation of Music Hall, a non-profit organization that provides ongoing financial and volunteer support toward maintaining and improving this Cincinnati landmark, make up the Music Hall Working Group advising MHRC.
 
The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced last fall that the orchestra would perform at the updated Taft Theatre in Downtown Cincinnati during the 2012-13 season while Music Hall is under construction. With MHRC’s timetable change, the CSO and Cincinnati Pops will now remain in Music Hall for the 2012-13 season, and perform at the Taft Theatre during the 2013-14 season instead. The orchestra will return to Music Hall in the fall of 2014. The Cincinnati May Festival will also shift its 2013 season at the Taft Theatre to 2014.
 
“This project is hugely important to the orchestra and the community,” said CSO President Trey Devey. “MHRC and the design team have our full confidence, and we support the decision to adjust the construction timetable.”
 
Cincinnati Opera was originally scheduled to produce its 2012 and 2013 Summer Festivals at the Aronoff Center for the Arts in Downtown Cincinnati. As a result of the timetable change, the Opera will remain in Music Hall during its 2012 season, with its 2013 and 2014 seasons taking place at the Aronoff Center. The Opera will return to perform at Music Hall in the summer of 2015.
 
”A revitalized Music Hall will be a game-changer for Cincinnati Opera, and we’re thrilled at the prospect of returning to a renewed hall in 2015,” said Patricia K. Beggs, Cincinnati Opera General Director & CEO. “We are fully supportive of MHRC’s decision and believe it will ensure that the project is completed with thorough and efficient planning.”
 
The production schedule for Cincinnati Ballet remains unaltered through the 2012-13 Season. Cincinnati Ballet performs its September Series in its own Mickey Jarson Kaplan Performance Studio, its October Series at Music Hall and the remaining series at the Aronoff Center for the Arts. After May 2013, all Cincinnati Ballet productions will be performed at The Aronoff Center or Kaplan Studio until Cincinnati Ballet returns to Music Hall December 2014. 

“Music Hall is central to Cincinnati’s civic and cultural identity. Audiences will love seeing Cincinnati Ballet on the revitalized Music Hall stage,” says Missie Santomo, Cincinnati Ballet Managing Director. “I have been impressed and delighted with the design process -- a true collaboration among MHRC, Ennead, Theatre Projects, GBBN, Jaffe Holden and the resident organizations. “

Potential World Choir Games Impact
Under the previous timetable, Music Hall would have been under construction during the 2012 World Choir Games, an event that will attract thousands of visitors to the region. With construction now starting in May of 2013, Music Hall’s various spaces may potentially be available for World Choir Games performances. This historic venue was originally built for the May Festival, the oldest continuous choral festival in the Western Hemisphere, and has attracted legions of choral music fans from around the world for nearly 140 years.
 
Music Hall
Completed in 1878 with private money raised from what is believed to be the nation's first matching grant fund drive, Music Hall is widely considered to be among the most beautiful concert theaters in the world. The hall is a community gathering place and one of Cincinnati’s iconic structures, but also a building in dire need of attention. This project to revitalize the hall will modernize the facility’s systems and patron experience while preserving Music Hall’s status as an historic architectural and musical landmark.