On 22nd June precious guests visited the corner of Besední and Veselá streets, the planned site of the new concert hall. The wold-famous mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, who became the patroness of the project, arrived to see how the construction works continue.
She was shown around the construction site by the Mayor Petr Vokřál, accompanied by the Deputy Mayor Matěj Hollan and the Director of Brno Philharmonic Marie Kučerová. “I am very glad that the project began to move after so many years of waiting. It worries me that my colleagues from the Philharmonic rehearse in unsatisfactory conditions and the audience are deprived of a great musical experience,” said Kožená, drawing attention to the absence of concert hall with acoustics suitable for extensive symphonic compositions. The singer also emphasised that the hall should be built as soon as possible, otherwise Brno will waste the opportunity to become a true cultural metropolis.
The Mayor of Brno Petr Vokřál, who accompanied the singer at the site, holds the same view. “I am aware of the fact that the city indeed needs a concert hall. I therefore consider it as one of the most important projects we should realize in the nearest future,” said Vokřál.
Together with the singer they went to see workers reinforcing the sheet pile wall that prevents soil slide.
“Since we are working at the historical centre of the city, in the vicinity of residential houses, we have to proceed cautiously. As soon as we reinforce the wall using eight meter long metallic piles, we are able to start digging the construction pit,” said Jan Strmiska from Brněnské komunikace, the organisation supervising the first phase of the project.
In the beginning of May, Brno made another important step on its way to a brand new concert hall, when the city launched a public selection process to find a designing team, which will propose the layout of the building‘s interior and most importantly, the concert hall itself – its shape, size, seating layout, acoustic insulation or facing materials.
Last week the Municipality extended the application submission deadline from 27th June to 1st August 2016 on account of several applicants’ appeal. “We have anticipated this, we assume these teams consisting of planners, architects and acoustic specialists will be international. Communication and arrangements with foreign partners is the reason why the applicants asked for the deadline extension. And we gave them one more month,” said Matěj Hollan, the Deputy Mayor. The Municipality set up strict criteria for the competition in order to achieve maximum quality. Thus only applicants who have recently designed and participated in realization of similar buildings are eligible.
About Hall for Brno
The working title Hall for Brno (Janáček Cultural Centre) denotes the project of new Brno concert hall construction. It will provide a home to the Brno Philharmonic, recognized as one of the Europe’s outstanding orchestras. Its more than one hundred members have had to rehearse and perform in unsatisfactory conditions. The Philharmonic is currently based in Besedni dům, the stage of which is too small. And the Janáček Theatre, the venue of many Philharmonic’s concerts, does not provide suitable acoustics for symphonic compositions. As a result, audience cannot hear the orchestra in its full cast.
“Hopefully, the audience will be able to recognize the quality of the orchestra thanks to the new concert hall and Brno will attract top artists from abroad, we have currently no place to invite to,” said Marie Kučerová, the Director of Brno Philharmonic.
The Hall’s patroness is the Brno-born world famous mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená.
The project is also supported by the writer Milan Kundera, playwright Milan Uhde, musicians Iva Bittová, Jiří Stivín and Jiří Pavlica, conductors Libor Pešek, Jakub Hrůša or Tomáš Netopil. Among other popular and recognized personalities endorsing the hall’s construction we find also the presenter Marek Eben, fashion designer Liběna Rochová, writer Kateřina Tučková and designer Maxim Velčovský.
The new concert hall offering 1250 seats and top-quality acoustic parameters will stand on the corner of Besední and Veselá streets. The total cost is estimated at 1,276 billion CZK. The municipal authorities endeavour to have the construction begun in the beginning of 2018, therewith following up on the first phase of the project, the rise of underground garages.