A Little Bit of Culture

This past Saturday night Sarah and I attended a concert performed by the Indiana Wind Symphony. I'm not really sure why they are called the Wind Symphony because they had both brass and string instruments in addition to wind instruments for their performance on Saturday. I was a bit confused about this. The full adult concert band played music from George Gershwin and marches from John Philip Sousa. The concert featured six songs total and the band was very, very good. Easily the highlight of the show was Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." The famous song featured local pianist Kelleen Strutz who was amazing in her performance of the classic song. Overall the concert was quite enjoyable and it was interesting to listen to a band full of such talented musicians. It definitely reminded me of being in high school again. The only negative of the whole concert was the old lady sitting next to us with the disgusting productive cough that went on for the entire concert. I thought about passing out a collection plate during the intermission to raise some money to buy her some Robitussin or something. It was really annoying. At any rate, I saw at least two gay couples and one lesbian couple so I think this qualifies as a legitimate artsy-fartsy event.

The other highlight of the evening was the concert venue. The concert took place at the Palladium at The Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel. The newly opened $186 million performing arts center features three venues, the biggest one being the Palladium, a $126 million, 1,600 seat concert hall (pictured below). First off, the architecture and attention to detail in this building is phenomenal. No stone was left unturned in the design of this building. More importantly, however, is the quality of sound that is produced. During the concert I could close my eyes and literally hear every instrument being played, the acoustics are that well tuned. I've never experienced any venue anywhere near this good for acoustics. A month ago the Indy Star had a big feature that explained some of the design highlights of the concert hall. Unfortunately I can't find this story online so I will do my best to explain some of the details that I can remember. The following link takes you on a virtual tour of the Palladium.

The Palladium from the Outside:



A view from the balcony:



A view from our seat:


The glass panels seen towards the ceiling around the speakers can all individually be adjusted. The band sets up and performs during a practice session and they use computer systems to adjust the panels to optimize the sound. Literally, the ceiling can be tuned.


A view of the ceiling:


The ceiling is so thick, a helicopter could hover over it and not be heard inside.


A look at the seats:


If you look carefully you'll notice that underneath each seat is a black mesh cylinder structure. Each seat has its own individual heating and cooling vent as opposed to larger vents used to control the climate in the entire room. This design is used to cut down on sound and not once did I hear the HVAC system kick in during the performance.