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Royal Conservatory Of Music - Telus Centre for Performance & Learning (KPMB)

SP!RE said:
That's a cool description-- whether Koerner Hall was like that or another building. I am going to have to take a good look when I'm there for a concert in November, as I was unable to make it during Nuit Blanche. But, anything that can be construed into Canadiana makes me happy. :)
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I don't think you'll be disappointed. The spaces blew me away and the Koerner Hall brought out strong emotions. Please report back with your impressions. Fantastic photos drum!
 
So nice to see the quality finishings and landscaping.... and how refreshing!
 
I was very impress with the hall and the amount of seating for it in a small space compare to the Living Art Centre in Mississauga.

Having been a volunteer for 9 years at LAC, I was never impress with it nor what I saw in the construction drawings at tender time. It was run down on opening day and has gone down hill since then. Then, it didn't have the money as this project did and it was for other things.

I got to take in a performance to hear what the sound is like.

Lack of washroom and direction to where they are is a downer. Going down 3 floors is not going to be fun.

I love how the the existing north side was incorporated into the new area as it add more charm to it.

I would like to got the chance to check out dress circle and the balcony for the view, as sometime dress circle is the best level to see and hear from.

It has a warm feeling sitting in the hall.

Too bad the lighting was only for that night as it adds to the building.

Was planning to go back later that night to take some other angle shots, but didn't do so.

A number of other shots fail once loaded to the computer compare what I was seeing from the camera. Wrong night for trying new settings.

The old and the new work well here compare to other projects where the new fail.
 
Thanks for the link, rdaner. That clip summarizes in a very concise way what this town has been about during the last ten years. The current decade doesn't have much to go, and I believe when it's over Torontonians will come to call it one of our pivotal decades.

In another thread, someone called this a "sad ass town". Isn't that just nuts? There are spectacular accomplishments here.
 
This may be a ridiculous question - and I will duck while posing it ever so sheepishly - but what with the new Telus Centre and RTH is there much of a mandate left for Massey Hall as a concert hall??? Would it serve well retrofitted as a theatre?
 
The acoustic there is lovely - the TSO were delighted perform there again while RTH was undergoing renovations a few years ago, apparently. I know there must be a limit to how many new music venues Toronto can absorb, even with our expanding scene, but I'm hoping Massey Hall won't be dropped from the list - or the Weston, which is equally fine.
 
Just me, the concert hall queen, lurking ...

Massey Hall is on the protected list of course. Friends and I were talking about her over drinks last Thursday night. I opined that until someone or some organization can figure out a use, she should be left alone, as is.

Toronto's getting big, and has lots of new stuff. Sometimes an old relic in the middle of everything serves a purpose of its own.

Adding to US' comments, no, we can't absorb another concert hall into our stream right now, but when RTH was closed for renovations, I was thrilled to go back to Massey; those are acoustics! Roy Thomson Hall, acoustically, is like a lover who promises to take me there, but just never does.
 
As long as people are chasing the spirit of Gordon Lightfoot or Neil Yonge or The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever, Massey Hall shall remain viable. And if Gordon Lightfoot's getting on in the years, there's always other Gordons to take advantage of the big brick barn, such as Monahan...

(Yeah, consider that, Nuit Blanche as an alibi for Massey Hall's continued magnetism.)
 
adma said:
As long as people are chasing the spirit of Gordon Lightfoot or Neil Yonge or The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever, Massey Hall shall remain viable. And if Gordon Lightfoot's getting on in the years, there's always other Gordons to take advantage of the big brick barn, such as Monahan...

(Yeah, consider that, Nuit Blanche as an alibi for Massey Hall's continued magnetism.)
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Good on you, adma, for pointing out that Massey Hall is actually still in use. There are two event boards on the front of the building, one on each side of the front entrance.

A fond recollection, although not what one may expect to hear: A long time ago (20 years or so?) I was vacationing in Key West around Christmas time. I was with a bunch of other like-minded vacationers, and we were discussing classical music. I said I was from Toronto, and it turned out that I was speaking with two players from the Philadelphia Orchestra. Those folks were involved in trying to get a new hall built in Phily. They knew about the Roy Thomson Hall debacle (it had been widely publicized) and of course I just rolled my eyes ... then, one of them said to me "but you still have Massey Hall" ... it is indeed a famous building.
 
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No question the hall is historic yet still very much relevant to many artists. I myself just recently saw Diana Krall there and her first words upon entering the stage and sitting at the piano were 'Massy Hall' with a huge sigh as if the realization of a dream and the weight of tradition were upon her.

As is often at issue here when talking about the more historic downtown sites you sometimes have to weigh the benefit of adaptive reuse with the cost of losing something important when the original use is threatened. Given its excellent acoustics I was wondering if the hall could be converted into a space for live theatre, or live musical theatre in particular, which would at least still preserve its use as a performance venue for Lightfoot-type concerts but would broaden its function in the absence of the symphony. Perhaps like the Elgin/Wintergarden it could also be used for TIFF screenings. It seems a shame to let it languish and the opening of Telus, although a blessing to be sure, likely renders the hall's future viability even more questionable.
 
Tewder said:
No question the hall is historic yet still very much relevant to many artists. I myself just recently saw Diana Krall there and her first words upon entering the stage and sitting at the piano were 'Massy Hall' with a huge sigh as if the realization of a dream and the weight of tradition were upon her.

As is often at issue here when talking about the more historic downtown sites you sometimes have to weigh the benefit of adaptive reuse with the cost of losing something important when the original use is threatened. Given its excellent acoustics I was wondering if the hall could be converted into a space for live theatre, or live musical theatre in particular, which would at least still preserve its use as a performance venue for Lightfoot-type concerts but would broaden its function in the absence of the symphony. Perhaps like the Elgin/Wintergarden it could also be used for TIFF screenings. It seems a shame to let it languish and the opening of Telus, although a blessing to be sure, likely renders the hall's future viability even more questionable.
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There is some space behind Massey Hall which could lend itself to perhaps a deeper stage and expanded dressing room areas but who knows who owns the property. If I'm not mistaken the space is currently used for parking between the rear of Massey Hall & the rear of the Elgin/Wintergarden. The stage is as wide as the seating area, height isn't a problem but I can't recall how deep the stage is, I think that is what presents a problem with full scale stage shows. Although CATS was staged in Massey Hall so it's obviously possible to do some degree of a scaled down production in there.
Massey Hall serves a different audience than Koerner Hall and remember there's a quite a difference in seating capacities between Koerner Hall (1100 seats) vs. Massey Hall (2700) which gives Massey Hall a great advantage as a mid-sized venue. I don't believe there is anywhere to assemble a projection booth which is why TIFF never used it, it would have made a grand venue during the film festival if it could have been done.
Massey Hall has a certain future ahead, it just needs to be booked better. That said I'll bet in the past 4 or 5 years the Elgin/Wintergarden sat in the dark more nights of the year than Massey Hall did, private rentals not withstanding.
 
In 2000, to celebrate TIFF's 25th anniversary, Sergei Eisenstein's silent classic Alexander Nevsky was presented in Massey Hall, accompanied by both the TSO and the Mendelssohn Choir, and TIFF continued the Massey Hall silent film tradition for a few years. By 2005 they had moved to the Elgin when they screened the classic documentary Nanook of the North however. I believe that TIFF abandoned Massey Hall for these special presentations simply because they were not filling all the seats there.

Back to Koerner Hall though, here's a wee autostitched pic of the interior that I put together on Nuit Blanche:

3988685945_5e0832201b_b.jpg


It doesn't get much more vaginal than that. Well, not since Shortbus.

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