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Abravanel Hall

Abravanel Hall is home to the Utah Symphony Orchestra and part of the Salt Lake County Center for the Arts. Adjacent to Temple Square and the Salt Palace on South Temple Street this architectural masterpiece has become a landmark. Besides symphony performances, the hall also hosts numerous concerts and special events. Abravanel Hall was created specifically to provide an environment of acoustical excellence by Dr. Cyril M. Harris, who was the acoustical consultant for the remodeled Avery Fisher Hall in New York City, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, all of which are known for their acoustical excellence. Abravanel Hall, formerly known as Symphony Hall, was so named in May 1993 to the beloved Maestro Maurice Abravanel, conductor of the Utah Symphony and advocate for all the arts in Utah. Abravanel Hall is actually a concrete building within a brick building. Inside these two outer shells stands the beautiful concert hall. Designed strictly as a concert hall, the stage has no proscenium, rather, it is an extension of the audience. The form of the hall is rectangular, which is characteristic of the world's finest symphony halls, such as "The Grosser Musikverinssaal" in Vienna, the "Concertgebouw" in Amsterdam (Netherlands), the "Avery Fisher Hall" in Washington D.C and the "Symphony Hall" in Boston. To reach the hall you must pass through sound lock corridors which are designed to prevent the confusion and noise from the lobby from spilling into the concert hall. The interior of the hall is dominated by convex curved surfaces for both the walls and ceilings. Not only these designs, but also the basic materials were carefully chosen by Dr. Harris and the architects for acoustical purposes. Suspended from the ceiling are six 16 x 16 foot brass chandeliers with 18,000 hand cut beads and prisms of Bohemian crystals imported from Austria and Czechoslovakia. The four story lobby is crowned with a ceiling of white oak and solid brass. To complement this, the hall is adorned with more than 12,000 square feet of tempered glass made in England, the lobby of the hall orients itself toward the East and the former home of the Utah Symphony, the Salt Lake Tabernacle and Temple Square.