Star Tribune: SPCO finally gets a hall of its own

We’re only 10 days out from the Ordway Concert Hall Opening Celebration, our first official concerts in our new downtown St. Paul home. Yesterday, Kristin Tillotson of the Star Tribune previewed the new hall:

Ever since Ordway Center was built 30 years ago, the musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra have not only had to perform in a one-size-fits-all theater more suited to opera and symphonies than to chamber music. They also had to contend with an overcrowded calendar, fighting for rehearsal time and concert dates with the Ordway’s other tenants.

Now, like a sister who has had to share space with three siblings finally getting her own room, the SPCO is stretching out and getting comfortable in the new Ordway Concert Hall. The musicians still will have to share on occasion. But this second stage is designed especially for a chamber group’s sound.

“It’s the beginning of a new era,” said SPCO President Bruce Coppock. “A concert hall is as much a part of an orchestra’s identity as the musicians’ individual instruments.”

The hall also gives the SPCO much more onstage rehearsal time, and the option to increase the concerts it plays on coveted Saturday nights from 18 to 24 a year.

The article continues with more on the hall’s construction, acoustics, and impact on the SPCO.

The opening concerts are just one event in Rock the Ordway, a 22-day celebration of the variety of arts presented at the Ordway. You can find a full event listing on the Rock the Ordway website.