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Originally designed as a classic European shoebox hall, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall had a number of deficiencies; the National Symphony musicians had a hard time hearing themselves, orchestral balances were off and audiences complained that the hall was aurally dead. When Chris Jaffe consulted on the hall in 1997, he redesigned the performance platform and added a tunable acoustic canopy over the stage to improve hearing conditions. In addition, he removed a portion of the upper balcony ring and added reverberation chambers around the orchestra to increase liveness. The lift in fullness and orchestral bloom resulting from these changes was immediately noticeable and the acoustics renovation of the 2,518-seat concert hall was hailed as a success.
*Project done while at JaffeHolden |
"Thank you for the extraordinary work you did on transforming the sound of the Kennedy Center Concert hall. It is truly a room in which all Americans can enjoy music under ideal conditions. Your professionalism, hard work, and good sense have blessed us with one of the finest halls in America."
– Lawrence J. Wilker, Former President, John F. Kennedy Center, in a letter to Christopher Jaffe | | | |
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