Highlights include of the event will include:
- Key note paper from Leo Beranek
- Paper from Jonathan Adams, the Architect of the Wales Millennium Centre
- Paper from Jeremy Newton, the Acoustic Consultant
- Gareth Fry on designing sound for the theatre
- Trevor Cox on "Sonic Wonders of the World"
- An intimate performance of Beethoven's Piano Concert No. 5, played by concert pianist Shelley Katz, accompanied by a system of over 30 on-stage 'orchestra' loudspeakers.
- Demonstration of the surround soundscape art of Martyn Ware (Heaven 17, The Illustrious Company), presented by his collaborator Chris Best
- Tours of the Wales Millennium Centre Donald Gordon Theatre, currently set up for the start of a Mama Mia run.
- Tours of the BBC's Hoddinnot Hall, used as a broadcast and recording studio for full scale orchestras.
A big part of the event will be the guided tours of the Donald Gordon Theatre. These are no tourist trails, as the tours will be led by the architects, acoustic consultants and lead technical crew behind the venue.
Attendees will have opportunity to hear about the aspirations and requirements each discipline brought to the project and witness directly how they were resolved. Expect real design team tension on display and judge for yourself the effectiveness of the negotiated outcomes.
In the rich and varied paper sessions, Trevor Cox, President of the Institute of Acoustics and Professor of Acoustics at Salford University, will kick off the event in his usual enlightening and entertaining style with a paper titled "Sonic Wonders of the World". Cox explores how man has attempted to harness and control the acoustics of his space since long before the Greeks and Romans conceived their amphitheatres.
Also flying in from Boston, MA, aged 96, will be veteran US acoustician Leo Beranek. As one of the founding fathers of modern acoustic design, Leo has literally written 'the' book on how to design concert halls and opera houses for world-class acoustics. As well as delivering his keynote address, Leo will receive the Peter Barnett Memorial Prize for his contribution to acoustics and electro acoustics.
(Claire Beeson)
