Helsinki - Helsinki Music Centre, Finland
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Helsinki Music Centre - Wikipedia
Helsinki Music Centre. External links[edit].
The Helsinki Music Centre, Finnish: Helsingin musiikkitalo; Swedish: Musikhuset i Helsingfors), is a concert hall in Toolonlahti and a music centre. Sibelius Academy, two symphony orchestres, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra) and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, are all located in the building.
The Music Centre is situated on a prominent site between Finlandia Hall, the museum of contemporary arts Kiasma and across the street from Parliament of Finland. 1,704 people can be accommodated in the main concert hall, which is a vineyard-style structure. Five smaller rooms accommodate 140-400 people. There is a chamber music hall and chamber opera hall, as well as an organ hall, rehearsal hall, and a black box room for amplified music. Students of Sibelius Academy use the smaller rooms regularly for training and student concerts.
Classical musicians in Helsinki had desired a purpose-built concert hall at least since the hall of the University of Helsinki, where Jean Sibelius conducted some of his works, was damaged in World War II. Eventually Finlandia Hall, designed by Alvar Aalto, was completed in 1971 and it became one of the major venues for concerts, but the building was conceived as a mixed use conference centre and the acoustics of the main hall were never satisfactory. The Sibelius Academy expressed interest in a new concert hall in 1992, and formal planning started 1994 as the two major symphony orchestras of Helsinki, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Helsinki Philharmonic joined the project. A two-part architectural competition on the design was held in 1999 and 2000 for a site at Töölönlahti, opposite the Parliament House. The competition was won by the Turku-based LPR Architects, with then 30-year-old architect Marko Kivistö as chief designer.