Cincinnati Music Hall
Victorian Gothic concert hall of 1878, home to the city's symphony, opera, ballet and May Festival.
Music Hall was built in 1878 on Elm Street facing Washington Park, in a red brick Victorian Gothic manner by the Cincinnati architect Samuel Hannaford. It was paid for largely by the merchant Reuben Springer and replaced an earlier saengerfest hall on the same ground, which had been used for the city's German choral festivals. The main auditorium, Springer Auditorium, seats about 2,400 people and was designated part of a National Historic Landmark in 1975.
Four resident companies use the building: the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Ballet and the May Festival, the oldest continuing choral festival in the Americas. A rebuilding costing around 143 million dollars closed the hall in 2016 and it reopened in October 2017, with the auditorium reshaped for better sight lines and acoustics and new lobbies and rehearsal rooms added. The Friends of Music Hall run guided tours, including evening ghost tours of the back corridors.
Highlights
- Springer Auditorium, the main hall seating around 2,400
- Red brick Victorian Gothic front of 1878 by Samuel Hannaford
- Home to the Cincinnati Symphony, Opera, Ballet and May Festival
- Guided building tours, including ghost tours of the back rooms
