Eric,

 

This is a great question that you ask! In terms of building, are you okay with both concert halls and churches? if so, please check out the campus of Emory & Henry College (Emory, Virginia). You will find their chapel to be amazing in terms of how it can make an ensemble sound. The chapel also serves as Emory United Methodist Church.

 

I look forward to other suggestions that you receive on this matter :-).

 

Peace,

Chris

Hi, Eric, and greetings from Blacksburg (although I can't tell where you are).

 

An interesting question, but I wonder how useful such a listing would be?  Most of us probably know exactly what the best acoustical spaces are in our own towns--I could tell you in a second where the ones in Blacksburg are, and I know one great church in Roanoke--but what use would that be to others who might never travel into these parts?

 

And of course for choirs that might be touring, there's often not much choice in performance venues.  Not all are easy to rent, or to obtain permission to use for outsiders.  A church group might be limited to churches of a particular denomination, while a touring college ensemble might want to perform at high schools regardless of the acoustics.

 

Just a couple of random thoughts.

All the best,

John

Hi! 

 

You might contact Dr. Bruce Browne - an ACDA member.  Bruce has toured nationally and internationally.  He has been working on figuring out how to "quantify" and "qualify" such venues for musical performing, and can give some insight into how such places might "work" fpr choral performance.

In my day job, I'm doing some parallel study to identify ways to gauge the characteristics that would be useful for choral conductors to use when looking and listening to a space to which they have been introduced. 

Most of us have used the finger-snap and hand-clap to provide the "hand-made" impulse to hear what happens... 

There are some other ways of asessing a space's utility for music.  Visual cues, such as length-to-width-to-height relationships can help, along with surface textures used in finishing the space.

A look at RPG Inc. and their list of jobs can give you a good start.  Their website is a goldmine of information.  Peter D'Antonio is a musician, mathematician, and Master Acoustician.  His company has made major contributions to the eficacy of concert venues around the world.  His application of Diffusion as a tool has been integral to how really successful spaces work for their intended use.

The Diapason journal could be another useful tool.  Organists often evaluate how well the instrument on which they play works with the space in which it "lives".

If you can come up with a list of your own from these and other resources, putting it up here would be a boon to the rest of us, too!

Here's to "good listening" and research!

Cheers!

 

Gene