Gifted to the University by the Krannert family, the Krannert Center for Performing Arts boasts one of the Midwest’s most acoustically renowned performance halls. Since its construction, Foellinger Great Hall has welcomed many world-famous musicians to its stage. But just what is so “great” about it?
According to the KCPA website, Herman and Ellnora Krannert gifted the University a performing arts center in 1962. They believed the arts to be “one of the most rewarding and enriching experiences people can enjoy — and, in these complex times, a most needed one.”
Foellinger Great Hall was designed by architect Max Abramovits and acoustician Cyril Harris to create near-perfect acoustics. Everything in the hall, from the ceiling, walls and seats, was meticulously designed to amplify sound.
Rick Scholwin, audio director at the KCPA since 2015, said the University is fortunate to be home to the Foellinger Great Hall.
“Herman and Nora spared no expense,” Scholwin said. “They wanted the best facility they could possibly have for the arts to be on this campus for the benefit of all.”
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The entirety of the KCPA cost about $21 million to build in the 1960s.
Contributing to the near-perfect acoustics of the hall, the walls were designed with no parallel surfaces for the sound to bounce off of. Each vertical panel deflects outward to allow the sound to continue to travel to the back of the hall.
“The Foellinger Hall has a very simple shell that’s part of the architecture that’s segmented to flex that sound out,” said David Chasco, professor in FAA. “The other technical strategies will be simply to not have walls that are parallel. You have to break up the length of the wall so you can derive mathematical formulas on what length each section of the wall should be.”
Abramovits and Harris used precise mathematical equations to determine the necessary cut and shape of materials based on the height, width and length of the hall.
Standing 76 feet tall and holding over 2,000 seats, the Foellinger Great Hall was built using precise acoustically friendly materials. The floor is made of white oak, and the walls are paneled from floor to ceiling in Indiana butternut veneer.
The Krannerts sent carpenters to Indiana to handpick the trees used for the project. The wood was then sent to New York to be cut before being shipped back to Urbana. The panels were hung, taking great care to ensure the wood grain was all facing the same direction, enhancing the hall’s sound quality.
Chasco said the key is the pure lack of echo from any point in the Foellinger Great Hall. Although a seemingly small detail, the seating was designed with specific padding and textiles to absorb sound.
“An acoustical engineer is going to be calculating all that information in order to eliminate any reverberation or acoustical echo,” Chasco said. “There’s the width, the length ratio, the height of the hall, the size of the stage and then the elements of the walls.”
Kimberly Fleming, who has a doctoral degree in musical arts and is the conductor for the University Hindsley Symphonic Band, said that in her experience, the resonance of sound in the hall is unmatched.
“The feeling that I get as a conductor is that our students are able to expressively reach out past their music stands,” Fleming said. “They play something, and they hear it resonate in the hall, and it feels like you truly have a connection with the people in the seats.”
Harris designed the entire hall with near complete symmetry for maximum sound amplification. They even built a false door in the back of the stage to mirror the functional one.
“So there is one actual door which leads up to the booths behind the hall, and the other door is fake, just because they wanted to match every (sound) wave that’s bopping around, aiming for perfection or as close as you can actually attain it,” Scholwin said.
The ceiling of the Foellinger Great Hall is made from acoustical plaster and is the first of its kind to be designed using computer algorithms. The Foellinger Great Hall has a sound reverb time of around 2.9 seconds, according to Scholwin, which is akin to larger cathedrals and lets the sound travel until it dies naturally.
“Any time you finish a note, finish a phrase, finish a whole piece, there’s this beauty that you finish it, and then you wait, and you just let it resonate,” Fleming said.
The ceiling maintains a consistent height through the back of the hall, allowing sound to travel to the upper balcony. The space between the floor and ceiling then narrows, allowing the sound to stop without reflection.
According to Fleming, the arrangement of the hall allows for different sounds to be heard depending on where you sit, leading to a very unique and immersive experience.
“There’s this magical spot on the ground level right where the upper level comes to an ‘L’ bracket, and if you sit below that spot, you get the sound off stage, but you also hear the sound resonate off that upper balcony, so it’s like an extra level of resonance there,” Fleming said.
Additionally, great care was taken in soundproofing the hall. The Foellinger Great Hall sits on its own foundation, separate from the rest of the theaters. It has independent plumbing and ventilation as well. The air conditioning unit for the building is seated on the roof of ISR across the street to minimize any unnecessary outside sound.
All sources of outside noises were taken into consideration when designing the Foellinger Great Hall, with state-of-the-art sound seals placed on all of the doors, as well as door stops, to prevent any slamming as people enter and exit.
From the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra, the Foellinger Great Hall has welcomed some of the best musicians to experience its acoustical excellence.
“We’re 55 years old now, going on 60 years old, and we’re still one of the best,” Scholwin said. “We are the Kennedy Center. We are the Lincoln Center of the Midwest. There is no place better.”
