Bilkent Concert Hall

Bilkent Concert Hall

Bilkent Concert Hall
Address	Bilkent University Campus, Bilkent Ankara Turkey
Coordinates	39°52′08″N 32°45′18″E / 39.8689242°N 32.754968°E / 39.8689242; 32.754968
Owner	Bilkent University
Type	Concert hall
Capacity	Bilkent Concert Hall: 750 Bilkent Theatre: 200
Construction
Opened	November 1, 1994
Architect	Erkut Şahinbaş İlhan Kural
Website
www.bso.bilkent.edu.tr

Erkut Şahinbaş

Bilkent Concert Hall (Turkish: Bilkent Konser Salonu) is a performing arts center in Turkey. It is located in the Bilkent University campus, Ankara. Home to the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the building hosts over 80 concerts per year. Besides a concert hall where Bilkent Symphony Orchestra based in, the building houses seminar rooms, academic staff offices, classrooms and studios for Bilkent University Faculty of Music and Performance Arts and an arena theatre for the performances of the theatre studies students.

Bilkent Concert Hall has been planned to house a faculty, a concert hall and a theatre building. Due to the multipurpose structure of the project, the building has a complex architecture. The architects İlhan kural and Erkut Şahinbaş has designed a central hall type building. While the center of the building is housing concert hall, theatre building and studios to provide darkness and silence, the exterior parts of the building was designed for the offices and classrooms due to the need for daylight.

For the concert hall located at the center of the building, acoustics consultant Matti Heikkinen has been applied. The whole construction of the building has been finished by the Tepe Construction company which is also owned by Bilkent University. The building was applauded for the acoustics of concert hall and the structure that allows multipurpose uses. The architects received a nomination for 5th National Architecture Grand Prize. The opening concert of the concert hall was given by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in 1994.

Bilkent Concert Hall building, which consists three floors, encompasses an area of nearly 14.500 m2. The concert hall stage includes a stage lift which allows to create an orchestra pit and thus to make the stage available to stage opera productions. It has two Steinway concert grand pianos. The interior walls of concert hall are coated with movable acoustic panels which make the concert hall a recording studio as well. The building hosts concerts in its concert hall for 750 seats and its foyer, performances of theatre students in its arena theatre for 200 seats and houses lots of studios, seminar rooms, classrooms, a cafeteria and a café.