The Athens Concert Hall (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Μέγαρον Μουσικής Αθηνών, ''Mégaron Mousikis Athinon'') is a concert hall located on Vasilissis Sofias Avenue in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

, Greece. The Hall was inaugurated in 1991 with two halls. Since then it has been augmented with two more halls and now has a total of four: two large and two smaller ones. The Hall has optimal facilities for opera performances, and some operas are presented every season. The Megaro Moussikis station of the

Athens Metro The Athens Metro ( el, Μετρό Αθήνας, Metro Athinas, translit-std=iso) is a rapid-transit system in Greece which serves the Athens urban area and parts of East Attica. Line 1 opened as a conventional steam railway in 1869 and electrif ...

is just outside the Hall, on Line 3. The design of the 8,000 square meters floor was performed by

Christopher Alexander Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature ...

; the process of designing and laying the floor and its result are described in his work '' The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe''.Christopher Alexander, ''The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe'', , see photo and description on page 264.

Performance venues and other facilities

*The Christos Lambrakis Hall (named after the ex-president of the "Friends of Music" Society,

Christos Lambrakis Christos Dimitriou Lambrakis ( el, Χρήστος Δημητρίου Λαμπράκης; 24 February 1934 – 21 December 2009) was the owner of Lambrakis Press Group (DOL), one of the largest newspaper groups in Greece, and arguably the most infl ...

, and previously called "Friends of Music" Hall) was designed by Heinrich Keilholz whose plan was altered later to its existing by architect Helias Skourbelos and the acoustics were developed by Theodore Timagenis. It has a capacity of 1,961, and is used for concerts and recitals. It also holds the biggest

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

in Greece, with 6,080 pipes, constructed by

Klais Orgelbau Orgelbau Klais is a German firm that designs, builds and restores pipe organs. It is a family run company, founded in 1882 by Johannes Klais senior and is now run by his great-grandson Philipp Klais. The firm is based in Bonn, Germany, and has co ...

. *The Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall (named after the conductor,

Dimitri Mitropoulos Dimitri Mitropoulos ( el, Δημήτρης Μητρόπουλος; The dates 18 February 1896 and 1 March 1896 both appear in the literature. Many of Mitropoulos's early interviews and program notes gave 18 February. In his later interviews, howe ...

), which has a capacity of 494 and is usually used for

Chamber Music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small nu ...

and dance performances. In 2004 the International Conference Centre opened at the Athens Concert Hall, adding: *The Alexandra Trianti Hall (named after

lied In Western classical music tradition, (, plural ; , plural , ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German, but among English and French s ...

er singer Alexándra Triántē), which has a capacity of 1,750 and is used for

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form ...

and other musical performances, *The Nikos Skalkottas Hall (named after composer

Nikos Skalkottas Nikos Skalkottas ( el, Νίκος Σκαλκώτας; 21 March 1904 – 19 September 1949) was a Greek composer of 20th-century classical music. A member of the Second Viennese School, he drew his influences from both the classical reperto ...

), a smaller hall for concerts and conferences, and *The Lilian Voudouri Music Library of Greece, established in 1995. It currently incorporates 126,000 titles and multimedia resources.

References

External links

Athens Concert Hall, official website
{{Coord, 37, 58, 52, N, 23, 45, 15, E, display=title, region:GR_type:landmark Concert halls in Athens Music venues completed in 1991 1991 establishments in Greece

Performance venues and other facilities

See also

References

External links