About 500 musicians, a sprinkler leak and two electrical fires. That was September 1985, and the Calgary Philharmonic still played Mahler.
Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony had never been performed in Western Canada until the orchestra used it to open the Jack Singer Concert Hall. That tells you what the Phil thought of its new home, and going big was the right call.
The opening gala
The Calgary Philharmonic’s own account says Music Director Mario Bernardi led the performance, which came in the orchestra’s 30th season. The musicians included members of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and choral groups from Calgary and Vancouver.
The lead-up was messier than the result. The Phil says a sprinkler leak drenched musicians who were rehearsing, and two separate electrical fires broke out in control rooms just before the opening.
The show went on anyway.
The hall went on to host more than orchestras. The centre’s history lists performers such as Johnny Cash, k.d. lang, Leonard Cohen and Bryan Adams among the acts that drew crowds in the early years. A room built for Mahler turned out to suit plenty of other kinds of noise.
Why the hall sounds so good
It was designed for symphonic music first. The Phil lists an adjustable acoustic canopy, oversized ductwork and two-inch isolation gaps in the concrete between performance and backstage areas.
A construction coordinator quoted in its article put the logic simply: “You don’t want any background noise, so you’re basically isolating the different areas.”
Then there’s the organ. The Werklund Centre’s history describes a 6,040-pipe Carthy Organ that took 15 months to build and four months to assemble. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the hall seats 1,800, with another 200 seats for a choir.
The Hard Hat Concert
About a year before opening, the Phil says, its musicians played in the unfinished hall, standing on bare concrete, to show the public what the money was building. A concert for people in hard hats is a very Calgary way to sell a symphony hall.
The orchestra didn’t wait for a finished room to ask for support. It invited people into a concrete shell and let them hear what the money might become. Bold, and we love it.
The City describes the next phase of the Werklund Centre Transformation as a renovation of the existing building, still waiting on funding and regulatory approvals. There’s no rush, but no reason to wait either. Book a symphony night and listen for how little else you hear.
More to read: They took the King Eddy apart brick by brick, Go sit in the King Eddy, Calgary’s home of the blues and The King Eddy Got a Second Act and Nailed It.
Keep going with A Motors and Music night backed Not In My City with live performances and The Jubilee and the Philharmonic Had a 28-Year Run.
Quick answers
The Calgary Philharmonic opened the Jack Singer Concert Hall in September 1985 with Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. It had never been performed in Western Canada before. Music Director Mario Bernardi led the performance, in the orchestra’s 30th season.
The Phil says a sprinkler leak drenched musicians who were rehearsing, and two separate electrical fires broke out in control rooms just before the opening. The show went on anyway, with members of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and choral groups from Calgary and Vancouver.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the hall seats 1,800, with another 200 seats for a choir. It was designed for symphonic music first. The Werklund Centre’s history describes a 6,040 pipe Carthy Organ that took 15 months to build.
