In March, the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra will return to the city’s beloved and rebuilt Town Hall. As well as regaining an auditorium that is regarded as one of the best-designed concert halls in the world, the CSO will also get a permanent home in a new wing built just for it. Part of that new wing is the Ron Ball Studio, which the orchestra will use as a main rehearsal room and small performance venue. Cityscape asked CSO chief executive Gretchen La Roche about the significance of the return, and what plans the organisation has for its new home.
How important to the CSO is the return to the Town Hall? Like many people we are really looking forward to it. The Town Hall is a very special place, with its acoustics and revolutionary design putting it among the top concert halls in the world. It’s a significant building not only for Christchurch or New Zealand but also internationally. It’s going to be great to be back in a large venue in the heart of the city; that will allow the CSO to be even more accessible to the Christchurch public and audiences.
What difference will it make to the CSO to be back in the central city? It will make a big difference for our community engagement programme. We have been engaged in this for several years now and it is becoming increasingly important to the organisation and to the people we work with. It’s the key to sharing our music with as many different people in as many different ways as we can. It’s not just the concert hall either – the Ron Ball Studio allows us to expand, launch new projects and welcome people into our home.
What plans do you have to make the most of the new spaces? We have lots of plans. One thing we want to do when we can is get the audience and the orchestra up close to each other. So from July 9, for the school holidays, we will present a season of Peter and the Wolf, which will have performances in English and others in Te Reo Māori using the Kāi Tahu dialect, and also special relaxed performances for people with particular auditory sensitivities or who need to feel free to get up and move around if they want to. As we settle in, there will be so many more opportunities to share the space with other organisations and art groups.