Casa de la Música, Quito
Quito's purpose-built concert hall, acoustically designed for symphonic and chamber music.
The Casa de la Música was built in 2003 on the slope below the Mariana de Jesús avenue in northern Quito, as the home of the Fundación Filarmónica Casa de la Música Hans and Gi Neustaetter. The architects Belisario Palacios and Igor Muñoz shaped the building around curving lines said to echo the bodies of stringed instruments and the movement of sound waves. Acoustic consultancy was provided by the German firm Müller-BBM, and the main hall has a reverberation time of about 2.1 seconds.
The complex contains a concert hall seating around 700 and a smaller recital and lecture room of about 80 seats, together with foyers used for exhibitions. It is the principal concert venue in the Ecuadorian capital for orchestral and chamber repertoire, hosting the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Ecuador, visiting ensembles and soloists, opera in concert, jazz, tango and popular music, as well as children's concerts and educational programmes run by the foundation.
Highlights
- Concert hall of about 700 seats with 2.1-second reverberation
- Acoustic design by Müller-BBM of Germany
- Curving forms inspired by stringed instruments
- Smaller 80-seat recital and lecture room
