Materials in the History & Background section were first published in conjunction with events leading up to the opening of the Kimmel Center in December 2001.

When The Philadelphia Orchestra moves from the Academy of Music to its new home at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in December 2001, you'll be able to hear the difference — thanks to sophisticated acoustical design.

With its new concert hall set to open at the end of this year, some people are still wondering why. Why is The Philadelphia Orchestra leaving its much-loved home of 100 years and moving south one block to an untested, brand-spanking-new structure of steel, glass, and more redbrick?

A number of answers can be found — of changing times and new need — but the most important reason involves an extremely sound decision. And like the price of any real estate deal, much can be hung on one word: acoustics, acoustics, acoustics.

As famous as the velvety strings and polished ensemble of the “Philadelphia Sound” has become, one of The Philadelphia Orchestra's greatest challenges has been the acoustics of its home at the Academy of Music. Built in 1857 for dramatic opera, the Academy has remained the Orchestra's main concert hall for 100 years. It has helped introduce hundreds of thousands of young people to classical music, and entertained millions of adults with world-class symphonic performances. Many have come to love the worn paint of its woodwork and the grand Corinthian cascades topping the columns that guard the proscenium of its stage.

The Academy of Music is indeed a lovely building. The commanding crystal chandelier that hangs over the center of the auditorium shimmers elegantly. The painted ceiling is a magnificent example of 19th-century ornamentation, representation, and iconography. The seats face intimately not just toward the stage but inwardly, along the sides,toward the neighboring audience members. Legroom, to be sure, is cramped in many locations. And the limitations of19th-century support engineering have doomed a variety of seats to partially obstructed views of the stage. But, all in all,for the eye it is an extremely pleasant place.

For the ear, the Academy is something altogether different. Not entirely awful, it is at times surprisingly capable of projecting sound across the divide, from stage to audience. But it is very much lacking certain characteristics that have come to define quality acoustics for grand symphonic music:warmth (largely created through sufficient but not excessive reverberation) and immediacy or intimacy (not just seeing,but feeling that you are in the same room as the performers). Among the Academy's positive attributes is a certain dry clarity, especially helpful onstage in allowing the musicians to hear one another (and also useful for vocal music in keeping voices distinct and clear).

As Music Director Wolfgang Sawallisch has said, "Many people are sentimental about the Academy of Music. I adore this Academy, too, but an opera house is very different acoustically from a concert hall. A big part of the Philadelphia audience does not know what the great sound of The Philadelphia Orchestra can be. Our new hall will be a very exciting place to hear this orchestra again in new ways.

"While repeated makeovers have improved the Academy's acoustics, Philadelphia has never been on the list of American cities with world-class halls. That, however, is about to change.

In December, with the opening of The Philadelphia Orchestra's new home at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, musical pundits and a hopeful press will descend upon Center City to hear how the Orchestra sounds inside Verizon Hall. Shaped like the inside of a cello and designed for the unique characteristics of this particular orchestra, the success of the new hall will help shape The Philadelphia Orchestra's sound for the next 100 years.

A lot is resting on acoustician Russell Johnson's expertise. He was selected by virtue of his impressively successful track record, however, and there should be little doubt that Philadelphia's new hall will quickly earn praise and become a welcoming home not only for the hometown orchestra but for other world-class ensembles as well (several visiting orchestras will be presented by the Regional Performing Arts Center during the Kimmel's inaugural season in the spring of 2002).

Among the more intriguing aspects of the Orchestra's new hall is an ability to “adjust” the acoustical sound. A period of testing will undoubtedly be required to understand exactly how to fine-tune Verizon Hall, but the ability to do so is a given. And the difference from the Academy's sound will be immediately apparent. Music will “speak” more directly to the audience, with the Orchestra's playing seeming to envelope and touch every listener. The improved acoustics are sure to nourish the performers onstage as well, and enhance their ability to communicate with every audience.

During the past century, acoustics has been treated as both a science and an art. It works, in fact, as both. Philadelphia is grandly fortunate to be building this new hall at the beginning of the 21st century. Science took over from trial-and-error in concert hall acoustics more than a century ago, helping (perhaps) to create such sound icons as Symphony Hall in Boston and Vienna's famed Musikverein. Subsequent advocates of pure science took over the field entirely after World War II, producing such unsatisfactory results as Philharmonic Hall in New York (later completely rebuilt with funding from Avery Fisher and today still less than ideal acoustically) and Munich's Philharmoniker amGasteig. Art — and the wisdom of experience — returned to the field in the last decades of the 20th century, recalling that human ears and not scientific instruments must be the final judge.

A record number of successful (good, very good, and superb) concert halls have been built in the past 20 years. Philadelphia is up next. With Russell Johnson's proven track record (from Birmingham, England, to Dallas, Texas, and from West Palm Beach, Florida, to Lucerne, Switzerland), we can expect delivery of something very exciting — and not a moment too soon for a busy, bustling city full of noise,magical mayhem, and music.

This article first appeared in the January 2001 issue of Stagebill (Sound Experience by Eric Sellen, Copyright © 2001 by Stagebill and the Philadelphia Orchestra.