Orchesterzentrum
Dortmund

The Orchesterzentrum|NRW is housed in a purpose-built building on Brückstraße in Dortmund, which was completed in 2014 by the office “SPAP Architektur Stadt Landschaft”. On 1,300 square meters between Dortmund’s main train station and the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the students and lecturers find optimal working conditions.

The building has a chamber music hall whose acoustics were designed by Graner + Partner Ingenieure, who are also responsible for the acoustics of the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Philharmonie Essen or the Moscow International House of Music. The hall is regularly praised for its excellent acoustics, which are especially optimized for chamber music performance and can be additionally adapted to different needs by mobile elements such as existing movable walls or movable acoustic curtains.

The Chamber Music Hall and other rooms can be rented for concerts, readings, competitions, seminars, congresses or other events.

With a stage size of about 160 square meters and 350 seats in a tiered arrangement, there is an optimal view from all seats. The chamber music hall includes a circumferential foyer that opens onto Brückstraße via a nine-meter-long glass skin. The 9×26 meter artwork “Waterloo” by the artist Frances Scholz stretches across the entire back wall of the foyer. It is thus constantly visible from the outside and continues to make the building an artistic treasure chest in Dortmund’s Brückviertel.

The technical equipment of the house basically offers the possibility to perform concerts and other events without bringing in external technology. The permanently installed concert lighting in the chamber music hall on tubular shaft hoists can be controlled, depending on requirements, either from the separate control booth or via an FOH position to be set up. Basic and customizable hall sound reinforcement is also provided, can be supplemented by the provision of microphones and mixers as needed, and is also controllable from the control booth or an FOH position. Projector and screen are permanently installed in the chamber music hall.

In the 300-square-meter foyer with a glass front on two sides, there are WCs and seating, a public checkroom and an L-shaped professionally equipped catering counter for serving drinks.

For the stage, two D grand pianos and one B grand piano from Steinway & Sons are available, as well as an existing podesterie that can be flexibly set up. Contact person for technical questions is Sebastian Feldkamp.

Pianos are available for students to practice in all rehearsal and practice rooms, and a harpsichord is also available. All rooms are equipped with mirrors. For symphony concerts, chamber music projects or for individual preparation, students can use additional in-house instruments. These include primarily orchestral subsidiary instruments such as contrabassoon or bass clarinet and other woodwind and brass instruments. The two percussion rooms have various timpani sets, two marimbas and other chromatically playable percussion instruments such as vibraphone or glockenspiel, several bass drums and snare drums, and a large selection of orchestral percussion instruments.