Orange County Performing Arts Center
The Orange County Performing Arts Center (OCPAC) is a large concert hall in Costa Mesa in the US state of California . The complex, which consists of several halls, was built in 1986 and expanded several times.
The house is considered the cultural flagship of Orange County and regularly hosts performances by renowned artists and groups from around the world. It is also home to the Pacific Symphony , the Philharmonic Society of Orange County , the Opera Pacific and the Pacific Chorale .
Location and directions
The Orange County Performing Arts Center is located on Town Center Drive in the heart of Costa Mesa . In the immediate vicinity of the concert hall is the South Coast Plaza, one of the largest shopping centers in the United States . The glamorous coastal city of Newport Beach is just minutes south on the Pacific Ocean .
There is a motorway junction conveniently located where Interstate 405 (San Diego Freeway) and California State Route 55 meet. The northern end of California State Route 73 is also not far from OCPAC. The two major cities of Los Angeles and San Diego can be reached from here in just under an hour's drive.
The Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has several bus routes that stop near the concert hall.
program
Events
The concert hall offers a wide range of cultural events such as concerts , cabaret , ballet and Broadway shows all year round .
In addition to the high-level concert operations of all genres, the administration of the concert halls also attaches great importance to the implementation of events for young people and children. Every year around 500,000 schoolchildren of all ages take part in a variety of cultural offers specially tailored to them.
A separate management department also takes care of the distribution of free tickets for students from the nearby universities.
sightseeing
The huge building complex with the individual halls can be visited. Guided tours of the house start every Wednesday and Saturday once a day at 10:30 a.m. The visit is free.
history
Although the concert hall is still very young, it has a varied history. Since the 1960s, Orange County has made efforts to build a concert hall due to the rapid growth of the surrounding cities. This should offer events with international artists at the highest level. In addition, a suitable venue had to be created for the two local orchestras , the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Symphony .
In 1979 the Segerstrom family donated 20,000 square meters of land for the project. This created the prerequisites for the construction of a cultural center financed exclusively by private donations. The planning began in the 1980s by the team of architects Harold Marshall and Dennis Paoletti. Jerald R. Hyde was responsible for the acoustics . On September 29, 1986, the first concert hall called Segerstrom Hall was inaugurated with a concert by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta .
When the Segerstrom family again made available US $ 20 million in 1998 , planning began for a generous expansion of the existing building complex. Other activities raised a total of US $ 200 million in donations. The individual halls bear the names of their main sponsors. The construction of the Samueli Theater with 500 seats was largely made possible by the donation of 10 million US dollars by the local entrepreneurial family Henry Samueli. The groundbreaking ceremony took place on February 6, 2003 and was accompanied by a concert by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra .
On September 15, 2006, the expansion of the building, which now includes several halls and theaters, was officially opened. The concert in the new Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall was performed by Plácido Domingo , the Pacific Chorale and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra under the direction of their chief conductor Carl St. Clair . The next day the world premiere of the work The Passion of Ramakrishna composed by Philip Glass for choir and orchestra took place.
The entire inauguration ceremony lasted six weeks. For this purpose, in line with the original philosophy, a large variety of foreign artists, such as the St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater , were flown in. Among other things, there was also an open day, which was attended by over 10,000 visitors.
Architecture and equipment
The architectural design of the building was carried out by the team of architects Harold Marshall and Dennis Paoletti. Jerald R. Hyde was responsible for the acoustics . The visually appealing concert hall is largely in the modern style.
Event halls
There are several large halls on the spacious property of the Orange County Performing Arts Center:
- The Segerstrom Concert Hall with 3,000 seats
- The Renée and Harry Segerstrom Concert Hall with 2,000 seats
- The Samueli multifunctional theater with 500 seats
- The Founders Hall with 250 seats
organ
The organ installed in the great hall is the work of CB Fisk from Gloucester , Massachusetts . The company's Opus 130 comprises 4,322 pipes distributed over 57 registers (73 ranks ) and was completed in 2008. The instrument is named Concert Organ in honor of its founder, William J. Gillspie . As a special feature, a solo work and a tuba work under high wind pressure have been added to the organ, which is arranged in the French-Romantic style according to American tradition, in order to be able to keep up with the orchestra in large symphonic works. Despite the largely mechanical action mechanism, the work has numerous electrically controlled pedal transmissions and octave couplings. The game action is supported by a servo-pneumatic Kowalyshyn machine.
Web links
- Official website of the OCPAC (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bus service. Orange County Transportation Authority , accessed October 14, 2009 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h History. (No longer available online.) Orange County Performing Arts Center , archived from the original on April 17, 2009 ; accessed on May 8, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Tour information. (No longer available online.) Orange County Performing Arts Center , archived from the original on April 16, 2009 ; accessed on May 8, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Op. 130. (No longer available online.) Fisk Organ Builders , archived from the original on December 9, 2008 ; accessed on January 25, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
Coordinates: 33 ° 41 '34 " N , 117 ° 52' 53" W.