Severance Hall
Severance Hall, also known as Severance Music Center,[1] is a concert hall in the University Circle neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, home to the Cleveland Orchestra. Opened in 1931 to give the orchestra a permanent home, the building is named for patrons John L. Severance and his wife, Elisabeth Huntingdon DeWitt Severance.[2] It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of Cleveland’s Wade Park District.[3]
Address
11001 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, Ohio
United States
Musical Arts Association
Concert hall: 2,000
Reinberger Chamber Hall: 402
February 5, 1931
2000
In addition to serving as the Cleveland Orchestra’s home and as a commencement site for Case Western Reserve University, Severance Hall is available to rent for concerts, weddings, corporate events, and receptions. On Severance Hall’s ground floor is Reinberger Chamber Hall, a separate 402-seat auditorium that is frequently used for more intimate performances and pre-concert lectures.
Acoustics[edit]
Shortly after the opening of Severance Hall, several acoustic problems were noted. These were attributed to the use of velvet curtains in audience boxes, thick carpet across much of the hall, and a large, sound-absorbing fly space located above the stage.[23] In addition, removable shells created for the Orchestra were constructed of materials that didn't reflect sound. Finally, the 6,025-pipe Ernest M. Skinner organ could be heard, but its positioning outside the auditorium itself was experimental and limited the options for addressing the auditorium's dry acoustics.[24]
In 1958, at the prompting of music director George Szell, an acoustical redesign of the hall was undertaken. To make the auditorium more resonant, the original proscenium and blue velvet curtains were removed and the use of carpet was reduced to a minimum.[25] On the stage, a permanent acoustical shell was built — affectionately known as “The Szell Shell” — which consisted of thick wooden walls formed in a series of convex curves.[26] To make the walls less absorbent and more reflective of sound, they were filled with sand. The result was a more vibrant-sounding space which complemented the Orchestra’s tone under Szell's direction.[27]
Visually, though, the new Modernist stage clashed with the elegant Art Deco design of the concert hall. In addition, the organ's pipe chambers were effectively sealed off from the auditorium by the new shell — rendering the organ non-functional unless its sound was transmitted into the auditorium through microphones and speakers.[27]
Use in film[edit]
Severance Hall was featured in the 1997 Harrison Ford film Air Force One.[28] The scene during the opening credits shows a night-time military raid on the presidential palace of the leader of Kazakhstan. Severance Hall's roof, with additional architectural elements added as set-dressing, was chosen to depict the palace.
A segment of the Cirque du Soleil film, The Journey of Man, was filmed in the main lobby. Shot in 1999 in IMAX, the segment Banquine, utilized the 40 foot ceilings in the Bogomolny-Kozerefski Grand Foyer.