Grand Opening of National Music Forum in Poland
Chosen for its expertise in acoustics and theatre design, the opening of this concert hall represents a nine year relationship supporting the City of Wroclaw in the development of this landmark performing arts facility.
Arup, one of the world’s foremost design and engineering firms with a reputation for innovative acoustics, theatre and audio-visual design, announced the opening of the National Forum of Music in Wroclaw Poland. Arup has served as a specialist performing arts client advisor to the City of Wroclaw and acoustics, theatre, audio-visual designer for the project since 2006 from its New York and Amsterdam offices. Arup was originally selected for the project as Artec Consultants Inc. Arup also served as the construction engineer on the project from its offices in Wroclaw and Warsaw.
The multi-venue facility includes an 1,800-seat concert hall; three chamber halls intended for chamber orchestra, chamber music, pop, and jazz performances; and spaces for the facility’s ten resident companies and seven resident festivals. Arup provided pre-design planning, auditorium design, theatre consulting, acoustic consulting, and theatre technical systems design services as part of the specialist client advisory services. Pre-design planning services included visioning of the facility, programming, feasibility consulting, cost consulting, operations and business case consulting, and architectural competition support around core services in the area of designing for the performing arts.
«The National Forum of Music has been a decade in the making and we are ecstatic the opening date is here,» said Dr. Andrzej Kosendiak, CEO of National Forum of Music and the project’s visionary leader from the outset. «Arup’s support, advice, global experience, and multidisciplinary skillset were indispensable throughout development. We chose them for the amazing track record they have in concert hall design around the world and they’ve really delivered a fantastic facility for us. They’ve been a great partner in this project.»
The National Forum of Music will be the new home to several resident orchestras and ensembles including the National Forum of Music Orchestra, the Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, the Leopoldinum Chamber Orchestra, the Lutoslawski Quartet, and the Wroclaw Philharmonic Choir. In addition to the Wratislavia Cantans Festival, it will also host other internationally recognized festivals such as Musica Polonica Nova, Musica Electronica Nova, Leo Festival, Jazztopad, and Forum Musicum, as well as hosting performances by major touring ensembles and orchestras.
The musical life of Wroclaw is particularly active, covering a very broad spectrum of genres, and the life of this facility has been specifically designed to meet this challenge at the highest artistic level. The hall is expected to host concerts by leading ensembles and artists worldwide, and first season invitees include Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, D.C., London Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic.
