Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall opens Friday with soundscape fanfare

Stanford Report, January 8, 2013 - The first notes on opening night will show off the advanced acoustic and technical systems of the new concert hall. By Robin Wander Click image to hear the intermission chimes created for the Bing Concert Hall. A three-minute fanfare packed with sounds shaped and inspired by Stanford's Bing Concert Hall - including harbor horns, a Canadian icebreaker, music student assignments and even the hall's steel beams - will be the first music heard at the hall on opening night this Friday, Jan. Faculty at the Department of Music's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics created the soundscape in response to the call for a ceremonial introduction to the evening program. Similarly, the chimes called BingTones that usher audiences into the hall and signal the end of intermission were composed on a computer. "Why use standard chimes when we could invent them and customize them to the space, to our new hall?" said Jenny Bilfield, the artistic director of Stanford Live. CCRMA faculty and staff have been involved in the design of the infrastructure and technical systems for Bing Concert Hall from the very beginning.