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

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:

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

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Sensational photo, the best we've seen yet!

Thanks for the info. re: TIFF at Massey Hall, I had no idea (or no memory of those presentations) and I worked TIFF back in those days at another venue.

All these vaginal references are beginning to creep me out ;)
 
I'm worried that no gay man will enter the place when word gets out.



The Elgin, actually.

Both. After CATS completed one of it's runs at the Elgin (amazingly, it played there twice) it either moved over to Massey Hall or came back to shame our theatre scene for yet a third time. I definitely recall it playing there for several months.
 
A symphony for sight

Toronto's last 'jewel in the crown' for cultural foundations completes

http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com

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Catalysed by the ‘Bilbao effect’, Toronto has seen its latest cultural by-product, the Royal Conservatory’s Telus Centre for Performance and Learning develop into a feast for the eyes as well as the ears. After more than 20 years since the masterplanning of Toronto’s cultural foundations, the plan’s ‘jewel in the crown’, designed by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB) under the direction of partner Marianne McKenna, is now complete.

The real wow element of the design is delivered by the Koerner Hall, a 1135 seat concert hall named after the donors Michael and Sonja Koerner. While based on the classic shoe-box arrangement, used globally in the world’s finest concert halls, two balcony tiers and a third technical balcony provide the opportunity to create a warm sculpted ‘liner’ within the box form. Waving beams of wood are arranged overhead optimizing the acoustic performance. Named the ‘veil of oak strings’ the arrangement ‘forms the backdrop for the chorus at the first balcony level, then hovers over the stage below the fixed acoustic canopy, extending into and over the hall at the technical balcony level’. Sound Space Design and Anne Minors Performance Consultants worked with KPMB to help achieve the optimum N1 acoustic rating to make the space ideal for classical, jazz and world music as well as for lectures and films.

Telus is conceived as ‘a series of great rooms’ for music but one of the defining features of the design is the optimisation of views created by three tiers of glass-fronted lobbies. The lobbies take full advantage of the project’s location in midtown Toronto, offering breathtaking views of the University of Toronto and the rest of the city, as well as providing a sneaky glance at back-of-house areas for performers, the café at the ground floor level, and an installation of unique antique musical instruments donated by Michael Koerner.

As well as the Koerner Hall, Telus provides 43 new teaching and practise studios and involved the renovation of Ihnatowycz Hall (previously McMaster Hall) dated 1898, and the addition of a new 150-seat Conservatory Theatre. The bridge between the old and new is generated by a skylit pedestrian court linking the Bloor Street entrance to Koerner Hall and the Dan Gallerias.

“The glass and steel structure of the new addition generates a dialogue between old and new, and celebrates the restored polychromatic facades of the heritage buildings. Small balconies project through the façade of the historic south wall and mark the half landings of the original wood staicase of the historic structure,†say the architects.
 
Chrisel, thanks for the link and the neat pictures carried over from the World Architecture News. But with all respect to the people there, I wouldn't be calling this the "last link" in Toronto's cultural rejuvenation. The Lightbox is surely an important part of the parade of new cultural facilities over the past few years.
 
Chrisel, thanks for the link and the neat pictures carried over from the World Architecture News. But with all respect to the people there, I wouldn't be calling this the "last link" in Toronto's cultural rejuvenation. The Lightbox is surely an important part of the parade of new cultural facilities over the past few years.

Good point. Speaking of TIFF, I wonder if they would consider using Koerner Hall during the film festival as a screening venue. It seems a natural in keeping with several venues in the Yorkville area along with Varsity, Isabel Bader & Cumberland.
 
Speaking of TIFF, I wonder if they would consider using Koerner Hall during the film festival as a screening venue. It seems a natural in keeping with several venues in the Yorkville area along with Varsity, Isabel Bader & Cumberland.

Back when RCM started this building program, TIFF did say they planned to use this new auditorium for the festival.

I haven't heard anything about it since.

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Oct 17-18

One of these days I may get a clear shot of the full front. Sunday is the best day, but not this weekend.
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Lets see the this area in the daylight.
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