Goshen College - Goshen, Indiana

In early autumn of 2002 Goshen College opened a new music building.
Facilities include:

• 1000-seat Souder Concert Hall.
• 200-seat Rieth Recital Hall.
• Orchestra rehearsal studio.
• Choral rehearsal studio.
• Art gallery.

Souder Concert Hall posesses exceptional grace and exceptional acoustics. The room is extremely quiet and is reverberant over a very wide range of frequencies. Performers feel well presented here. Audiences feel they have heard all of the music.

Lighting equipment includes reverse-phase dimmers by Entertainment Technology, some in permanent racks and some in portable strips. The combination of reverse-phase dimmers and extremely quiet Electronic Theatre Controls Source-4PAR lighting fixtures puts this system on a par with the quietest concert lighting dimming systems ever installed. 100-ampere, 200-ampere, and 400-ampere company switches allow safe and convenient connection of large portable equipment.

A technical gallery rings the room, allowing easy access to technical positions. The acoustical canopy over the stage platform encloses a catwalk for access to canopy lighting fixtures. The canopy "wings" are winched to allow adjusting their angle. Followspots are accommodated in a followspot room. Lighting controls can be operated from several different locations including backstage, the house mix location, and the followspot room.

The high ceiling areas of the room are not used for houselight fixtures to avoid the expense of providing relamping catwalks above and to avoid the acoustical leaks that would result from poking houselight holes through the acoustical barrier ceiling. Instead the houselights are located around the perimeter of the room, where they can be re-lamped easily, and where they add to the sense of cradling the audience in a warm comfortable room.

The Rieth Recital Hall has an exceptionally high ceiling to provide the air volume that is appropriate for the organ. The organ required an additional two years to build.

Joint Venture Architect: Schmidt Associates - Indianapolis, IN
Joint Venture Architect: The Mathes Group - New Orleans, LA
Acoustician: The Talaske Group