1. H4 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2006 WWW.KANSASCITY.COMTHE KANSAS CITY STAR. T W O S T A G E S • O N E R E P
T w i c e t h e p o s s i b i l i t i e s !
NOW THRU OCT 15
SPENCER THEATRE • 4949 Cherry Street, Kansas City, MO KC REP IS THE PROFESSIONAL THEATRE IN RESIDENCE AT UMKC.
with
BRIAN ANTHONY
WILSON
AsseenonHBO’s THE WIRE
8 1 6 . 2 3 5 . 2 7 0 0 • w w w . k c r e p . o r g
Partial support provided by
kc rep is the professional theatre in residence at umkc.
T W O S T A G E S • O N E R E P
T w i c e t h e ssibilities!
SPENCER THEATRE •4949 Cherry, KCMO
MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYMAKING
104
SCROOGE SAVER SALE! ~ 4 DAYS ONLY!
INTERNETSALE: OCT 14-17 PHONE SALE: OCT 16-17
Order your ticket online or by phone Oct 14 through 17 and receive
an additional 25% off the already-discounted Scrooge Saver dates
(November 18 thru 30)! Visit www.kcrep.org or call 816.235.2700.
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Exclusively presented by
ecember 24, 2006
Call 913-469-4445
or visit www.jccc.edu/CarlsenCenter
Buy online:
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Deaf and hearing impaired TDD/TTY 913-469-4465
From Israel
Deca DanceBatsheva Dance Company
8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21
(Q&A with the&A with the aartists atists aftefter ther the SSaturturdaday pey perfrformaormancence)
2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22
A thrilling a selection of artistic director
Ohad Naharin’s best work.
Taking modern dance to the cutting edge,
with extraordinary dancers doing stunning
movement set to thrilling music –
classical to rock.
In partnership with the Jewish Community Center and supported in part by Jewish Community
Foundation Funds: Norman Glazer & Jean Burstein Glazer Fund for Jewish Cultural Arts, Helen and
Sam Kaplan Memorial Fund, and Earl J. & Leona K. Tranin Special Fund.
The English
Concert with
Andrew Manze
Nov. 4
Ed McMahon
Nov. 10-11
Upcoming Carlsen Center events:
816. 531. PLAY(7529)
www.unicorntheatre.org
giant stars. titan egos.
high-voltage humor.
by Austin Pendleton
2006-2007 SEASON
Reveal. React. Reflect.
Tickets available through central ticket office on our website.
OCT20-NOV12
•3828 Main Street
ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT!
In 20 years of business in
Kansas City, Omni Models Inc.
has become famous for its in-
credibly realistic-looking mini-
atures.
Its architectural models are
as fascinating as any dollhouse,
lit from within and detailed
with tiny windows, trees and
cars. The company’s subjects
have included everything from
a Saudi soccer stadium to the
Sprint Center Arena in down-
town Kansas City.
But the structure it is cur-
rently building in a Crossroads
Art District firehouse is like
nothing Omni has done before:
a one-tenth scale interior
model of the orchestra hall of
the new Kauffman Center for
the Performing Arts.
Made entirely of birch that is
measured and cut by complex
computer programs, the 20-
foot-high model will eventually
be used by Kauffman Center
acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota to
fine-tune the acoustics before
the interior design details are
finalized.
The pioneering use of these
models has made Toyota’s
company, Nagata Acoustics of
Japan, famous for nearly per-
fect acoustics — from Suntory
Hall in Japan, hailed as one of
the greatest acoustic successes
in history when it opened in
1986, to Walt Disney Hall in
Los Angeles, which has trans-
formed not just the sound but
also the reputation of the Los
Angeles Philharmonic.
The goal of the models,
which can cost tens of thou-
sands of dollars to build, is to
find “detrimental echoes” and
to eliminate them, Toyota said.
“Computer models cannot
say anything about echoes.
Hearing is everything.”
Eliminating echoes is one of
the elements that creates a nat-
ural decay of a sound.
“There must be nothing to
interrupt the decay,” Toyota
said.
Toward that end, acousti-
cians have developed an almost
unbelievable science to test
how sound bounces around a
concert hall. First, they build an
absolutely airtight chamber in-
side the model, into which they
pump nitrogen to remove the
15 percent oxygen found natu-
rally in the air. Oxygen slows
sounds, thus interfering with
the sounds that are to be broad-
cast inside the chamber.
Then they install between 20
and 30 tiny microphones in
places where the audience
would be sitting. Finally they
project sounds from the stage
area, where the orchestra will
sit.
But not just any sounds.
Since this model is one-tenth
the size of the future concert
hall, the sounds must have one-
tenth the wavelength of a
sound we want to hear. That
means the sounds projected
into the model are extremely
high-pitched and have to be
electronically slowed so that
the human ear can hear them.
From there, movable surfaces
inside the hall are adjusted to
enhance or delete unwanted
echoes that are picked up by
the microphones.
Don’t feel bad if you find it all
a bit baffling. Toyota said it
took scientists decades to de-
velop these techniques, begin-
ning in the1960s in Germany.
The point is that it works. So
far Nagata Acoustics has yet to
build an acoustic dud, and
most of its buildings have been
acclaimed as pinnacles of the
acoustic art.
“If the Disney hall is any indi-
cation of what they’re capable
of, we have a lot to look for-
ward to,” said Kansas City Sym-
phony executive director Frank
Byrne at the time Toyota was
appointed to the project.
Indeed critics and audiences
have raved about Disney as
they have about few halls
opened in the last 20 years. The
most rhapsodic was not a mu-
sic critic but Herbert Mus-
champ, the architecture critic
for the New York Times:
“Mozart’s 32nd Symphony
nearly brought on an attack of
Stendhal’s syndrome, the noto-
riously romantic state of panic
induced by aesthetic ecstasy.
Audience, music, architecture
were infused by a sensation of
unity so profound that time
stopped.”
It’s hard to overlook how
similar in shape the Kauffman
Center symphony hall is to Dis-
ney’s elongated bowl shape.
And in light of Toyota’s dec-
laration that his firm gets better
with each new hall because
“we learn from what went be-
fore,” there is reason to believe
that Kansas City might be in
store for an acoustic design as
good as any in the world.
What on earth will we do
with such a thing?
To reach Paul Horsley, classical
music critic and dance writer,
call (816) 234-4764 or write
e-mail to phorsley@kcstar.com.
Better music through science
By PAUL HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star
ALLISON LONG | KANSAS CITY STAR
Richard Dautremont, of Omni Models Inc., sands wood in front of a scale model of the
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The model will be used for acoustic testing.
Local model-building
firm helps Kauffman
Center acoustician
fine-tune hall’s acoustics.
CLASSICAL MUSIC + DANCE