Theatre Projects Celebrates the Opening of Milton Court, a New Building for Guildhall School of Music & Drama

	Milton Court's Concert Hall at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Photos: Morley von Sternberg / David Walker Architects / RHWL Arts Team

The Guildhall School of Music & Drama will celebrate the opening of their new building, Milton Court, with a concert and reception on Thursday, September 26. Milton Court will provide much needed additional teaching space for the school and will complement their existing facilities on Silk Street. The £89 million center brings together several distinct performance spaces under one roof to provide world-class performing arts facilities and an ideal environment for students to learn and practice their craft. The Concert Hall will also be used by the Barbican and its artistic partners, including performances from the Barbican's two new Associate Ensembles, the Academy of Ancient Music, and Britten Sinfonia.

Milton Court is located at the heart of the City of London, occupying the first six floors of The Heron, a new 40-story residential tower originally conceived by David Walker Architects. Theatre Projects collaborated with RHWL Arts Team on the design of these performing arts spaces, ensuring that the needs of the school and its students was always first priority and their new theatres were designed with the learning process in mind as well as being suitable as a first class performance venue.

The centerpiece of Milton Court is an aesthetically beautiful Concert Hall with seating on two levels and adjustable acoustics to accommodate a variety of performance types -- from solo recitals to chamber music ensembles and full-sized symphony orchestra concerts. "It was conceived as a training experience for music students," explains John Riddell, project manager for Theatre Projects, "and because of the different demands placed upon it by the Guildhall School's broad music curriculum, it's designed to be turned around quickly between different formats -- on any given day, it might be used for rehearsal in the morning, a lunchtime recital, and an evening jazz concert." To meet the demand for flexibility in the Concert Hall, Theatre Projects designed a system of elevators and seating wagons to allow for a platform depth from 6.5m to over 12m, providing flexibility for performances and a comfortable platform for a large orchestra.

At 608 seats, the new Concert Hall is the largest of any of the London conservatories, filling a gap in the City's professional performance venues. In addition to the Guildhall School's 100-plus annual public performances at Milton Court, the Concert Hall will also host a year-round program of classical and contemporary music presented by the Barbican and its artistic partners. This includes performances from the Barbican's two new Associate Ensembles -- the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia -- alongside one-off special events, and programs from the Barbican and Guildhall School's joint Creative Learning division. It's also home to the School's own symphony orchestra, the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, who will present the first public concert in the venue on October 4.

The school's existing 308-seat Silk Street Theatre is in constant use so a new 223-seat theatre was designed as part of Milton Court and is robust enough to cope with a similar level of high demand throughout the year. Conceived as an ideal teaching and training environment as well as a fully working theatre to accommodate professional standard productions, Theatre Projects designed this proscenium theatre with fully automated power flying as well as elevators that easily adjust to create an orchestra pit or adaptable forestage area. According to Riddell, "the technical theatre facilities in this space are exceptional. Students graduating in the coming years will be equipped with the knowledge needed to work in the most complex theatre environments in the world today."

Flexibility is key for the Studio theatre at Milton Court so it was designed with a high technical specification. This space is designed to complement the School's other theatres and provide students with an experience of performing in an intimate, adaptable space. Seating can be arranged in various configurations for up to 128 audience members, including end stage, in the round, and traverse, giving students a taste of the different theatre formats they will work in during their professional careers. There's also a technical gallery that runs the perimeter of the room and a tension wire grid with a concealed access void from behind stage level to allow for easy and safe access to the grid, providing a technical training experience for students that is different from the School's other venues.

The School's new facilities also include a TV studio suite and three rehearsal rooms. They are each fitted out with state of the art equipment and are designed to meet the requirements of the School's curriculum and rehearsal needs. The rehearsal rooms all have sprung floors and are exactly the same size as one of the School's new or existing theatres, allowing productions to be transferred more easily to the stage. Theatre Projects specified pipe grids and rehearsal sounds systems for the TV studio theatre and rehearsal rooms.