Athens Concert Hall
Encyclopedia
The Athens Concert Hall is a concert hall located in Athens, on Vassilissis Sofias Avenue
.
The Hall was inaugurated in 1991 with two halls. Since then it has been augmented with two more halls and now has a total of four: two large and two smaller ones. The Hall has optimal facilities for opera performances, and some operas are presented every season.
The Megaro Moussikis station
of the Athens Metro
is just outside the Hall, on Line 3.
The design of the 8,000 square meters floor was performed by Christopher Alexander
; the process of designing and laying the floor and its result are described in his work The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe
.
In 2004 the International Conference Centre opened at the Athens Concert Hall, adding the
Vassilissis Sofias Avenue
Vasilissis Sofias Avenue is a major avenue in the east side of Athens, the Greek capital. The avenue was originally part of the Kifisias Avenue. The part from Syntagma Square to the intersection with Alexandras Avenue was renamed after Queen Sophia the consort of King Constantine I...
.
The Hall was inaugurated in 1991 with two halls. Since then it has been augmented with two more halls and now has a total of four: two large and two smaller ones. The Hall has optimal facilities for opera performances, and some operas are presented every season.
The Megaro Moussikis station
Megaro Moussikis station
The Megaro Moussikis Attiko Metro station is located just outside the Athens Concert Hall on Vassilissis Sophias Ave. The U.S. Embassy, as well as the hospitals "Alexandra" and "Areteion", are close to the station....
of the Athens Metro
Athens Metro
The Athens Metro is an underground rapid transit system serving Athens, the capital city of Greece. It was constructed and owned by Attiko Metro S.A. and operated until 2011 by Attiko Metro Etaireia Leitourgias S.A....
is just outside the Hall, on Line 3.
The design of the 8,000 square meters floor was performed by Christopher Alexander
Christopher Alexander
Christopher Wolfgang Alexander is a registered architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world...
; the process of designing and laying the floor and its result are described in his work The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe
The Nature of Order
The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe is a four-volume work by Christopher Alexander published in 2003-2004. In his earlier work, Alexander attempted to formulate the principles that lead to a good built environment as patterns, or recurring design...
.
Performance venues and other facilities
- The Christos Lambrakis Hall (named after the ex-president of the "Friends of Music" Society, Christos LambrakisChristos LambrakisChristos Dimitrios Lambrakis was the owner of Lambrakis Press Group , one of the largest newspaper groups in Greece, and arguably the most influential....
, and previously called "Friends of Music" Hall) was designed by the famous Austrian acoustician Heinrich Keilholz. It has a capacity of 1,961, and is used for concerts and recitals. It also holds the biggest pipe organPipe organThe pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...
in Greece, with 6,080 pipes, constructed by Klais Orgelbau.
- The Dimitri Mitropoulos Hall (named after the conductorConductingConducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, Dimitri Mitropoulos) which has a capacity of 494 and is usually used for Chamber MusicChamber musicChamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
and dance performances.
In 2004 the International Conference Centre opened at the Athens Concert Hall, adding the
- The Alexandra Trianti Hall (named after liederLiedis a German word literally meaning "song", usually used to describe romantic songs setting German poems of reasonably high literary aspirations, especially during the nineteenth century, beginning with Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, and Franz Schubert and culminating with Hugo Wolf...
singer Alexándra Triántē), which has a capacity of 1,750 and is used for operaOperaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
s, balletBalletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
and other musical performances, - The Nikos Skalkottas Hall (named after composer Nikolaos SkalkottasNikolaos SkalkottasNikos Skalkottas was one of the most important Greek composers of 20th-century music. A member of the Second Viennese School, he drew his influences from both the classical repertoire and the Greek tradition....
), a smaller hall for concerts and conferences, and - The "Lilian Voudouri" Music Library of Greece, established in 1995. It currently incorporates 126,000 titles and multimedia resources.