Kyoto Concert Hall (京都コンサートホール)

Located in Sakyo Ward in Kyoto City, Kyoto Concert Hall is dedicated to classical music concerts.

Summary

It was built by Kyoto City on the 1200th anniversary of the establishment of Heiankyo, and is operated by Kyoto City Music Art Cultural Promoting Foundation. An pipe organ is installed in its shoe box-shaped main hall. It is Kyoto Symphony Orchestra's home music hall. Completed in 1995. Designed by Arata ISOZAKI. The current director of the hall is Ryohei HIROSE.

Features
Its passageways are designed to be rather long: the path from the main street to approach the hall passes a pond and gives the visitor a feeling of being drawn into the entrance; spiral slopes lead to its large and small halls. This was modeled after temples and shrines in Kyoto, and it is said to uplift the spirits of the audience as well. Elevators also take the disabled to each floor of the halls. The world's first organ stops which include tones from Japanese traditional instruments are very popular.

Summary of Facilities
Site area: 9,900 square meters; total floor space: 22,412 square meters

The large hall
1839 seats (including six for wheelchairs), up to the third floor balcony seats
Pipe organ: 90 stops in total, 7155 pipes in total. Made by Johannes Klais Orgelbau GmbH & Co. KG, Germany.

Shoe-box type. The hall scatters sound using randomly corrugated surfaces on the parallel side walls and irregular projections on the ceiling.

Its acoustic design was made by Nagata Acoustics.

Ensemble Hall Murata (the small hall)
514 seats (including four for wheelchairs)

Location
1-26 Hangi-cho, Shimogamo, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City

Approximately three minutes on foot from Kitayama Station on the Kyoto City Subway Karasuma Line

[Original Japanese]