RiverCenter has held host to famous musicians, dancers, actors, comedians, and entertainers from around the world. Notable performances include Bill Cosby, Stomp , Miss Saigon , A Streetcar Named Desire , Blast! , Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, The Moscow Boys Choir, David Copperfield, Jessye Norman, Chick Corea and Bela Fleck, and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Annually, the center hosts the Miss Georgia Pageant and the Ledger-Enquirer's Page One Awards. The Bill Heard Theatre regularly holds performances of the Columbus Symphony, the Youth Orchestra of Greater Columbus, and the Columbus Ballet. RiverCenter operates under contract with Tickets.com and runs performances year-round. In a June interview with CMT.com, Garrison Keillor called RiverCenter "a fabulous new auditorium that is as fine as any I've ever played in."
William Henry Cosby Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, musician, author, and convicted sex offender. He held an active career for over six decades before being convicted and imprisoned for sex offenses in 2018.
Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby Jr. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War, and Madame Butterfly's story of marriage between an American lieutenant and a geisha is replaced by a romance between a United States Marine and a seventeen-year-old South Vietnamese bargirl.
Blast! is a Broadway production created by James Mason for Cook Group Incorporated, the director and organization formerly operating the Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps. It was the 2001 winner of the Tony Award for "Best Special Theatrical Event", and simultaneously received a Tony Award nomination for and won the 2001 Emmy Award for "Best Choreography".
Design and construction
RiverCenter's design team included internationally acclaimed Hardy Holzman Phiefer Associates (1981 Architecture Firm Award) and local firm, Hecht Burdeshaw Architects (credited with the Aflac, TSYS, and Synovus World Headquarters). For the theatre design, Theatre Projects Consultants of Norwalk, Connecticut were contracted. Other design team members include Jordan, Jones, and Goulding (Civil Engineers; Columbus); Harrington Engineers, Incorporated (Structural Engineers; Atlanta); Newcomb & Boyd (Mechanical Engineers; Atlanta); Cline, Bettridge, Bernstein Lighting Design (Architectural Lighting; New York); JaffeHolden Acoustics, Inc. (Acoustical Consultant; Norwalk, CT); and Jones Worley Graphics, Incorporated (RiverCenter logo and "performers"; Atlanta). General Contractor of the building was handled by Beers Skanska, Incorporated or Atlanta. Pre-acquisition environmental and construction testing of the site was performed by employees of Building and Earth Sciences in Columbus. Most of the subcontracting work including stone, masonry, steel, fire protection, and staging were made locally.
Aflac Inc. is an American insurance company and is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia. In the U.S., Aflac underwrites a wide range of insurance policies, but is perhaps more known for its payroll deduction insurance coverage, which pays cash benefits when a policyholder has a covered accident or illness. The company states it "provides financial protection to more than 50 million people worldwide".
Total System Services, Inc., headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, provides payment processing services, merchant services and related payment services. It also provides reloadable prepaid debit cards and payroll cards, and demand deposit accounts to the underbanked. It is the largest third-party processor for issuing banks in North America, with a 40% market share, and one of the largest in Europe. It is a subsidiary of Global Payments.
The Synovus Financial Corporation, formerly the Columbus Bank and Trust Company, is a financial services company with approximately $45 billion in assets based in Columbus, Georgia. Synovus provides commercial and retail banking, investment, and mortgage services through 249 branches and 335 ATMs in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee.
Technology
The RiverCenter is one of the most technologically advanced performance spaces in the state. In Heard Hall, the lighting booth boasts an Ion Lighting console, manufactured by world-renowned Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC). Racks of Sensor+ Dimmers can handle loads in excess of one million watts (1000 kW). In Legacy Hall and the Studio Theatre, lighting is controlled on ETC Exspression consoles. Almost all lighting instruments are provided by ETC.
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. Daylighting is sometimes used as the main source of light during daytime in buildings. This can save energy in place of using artificial lighting, which represents a major component of energy consumption in buildings. Proper lighting can enhance task performance, improve the appearance of an area, or have positive psychological effects on occupants.
Electronic Theatre Controls (ETC) is a privately held corporation with global headquarters in Middleton, Wisconsin, United States. ETC produces lighting fixtures, lighting control consoles, dimming equipment, power distribution, networking equipment, and rigging systems.
Dimmers are devices connected to a light fixture and used to lower the brightness of light. By changing the voltage waveform applied to the lamp, it is possible to lower the intensity of the light output. Although variable-voltage devices are used for various purposes, the term dimmer is generally reserved for those intended to control light output from resistive incandescent, halogen, and compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). More specialized equipment is needed to dim fluorescent, mercury vapor, solid-state, and other arc lighting.
Sound is mixed on a now discontinued Crest Audio V12 32 channel analog mixing console and heard on Eastern Acoustic Works Speakers. External processing (outboard- equalization, compressing, limiting) in the Heard Hall is done on Klark Teknik units. All halls boast the ability to record audio and video.
The rear walls of the auditorium are fitted with motorized acoustic curtains that can be adjusted to better suit the type of performance. To further improve acoustics, a large three piece orchestra shell ceiling extends from the stage proscenium. The entire mahogany structure can be adjusted with motorized counter-weight rigging.
An orchestra pit seating up to fifty musicians can be raised to house or stage position, adding four rows of seating, or an extended apron.
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is a Grade I listed building, the first post-war building to become so protected. The London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are resident in the hall.
David Geffen Hall is a concert hall in New York City's Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The 2,738 seat auditorium opened in 1962, and is the home of the New York Philharmonic.
The Schermerhorn Symphony Center is a concert hall in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Ground was broken for construction on December 3, 2003. The center formally opened on September 9, 2006, with a gala concert conducted by Leonard Slatkin and broadcast by PBS affiliates throughout the state. The center is named in honor of Kenneth Schermerhorn, who was the music director and conductor of the Nashville Symphony from 1983 until his death in 2005; the center was named before maestro Schermerhorn's death.
Hill Auditorium is the largest performance venue on the University of Michigan campus, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The auditorium was named in honor of Arthur Hill (1847-1909), who served as a regent of the university from 1901 to 1909. He bequeathed $200,000 to the university for the construction of a venue for lectures, musical performances, and other large productions. Opened in 1913, the auditorium was designed by Albert Kahn and Associates. It was recently renovated by the same firm beginning in 2002 and was re-opened in 2004.
The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is an educational and performing arts complex located at 500 South Goodwin Street in Urbana, Illinois, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Herman C. Krannert, an industrialist who was the founder of Inland Container Corporation and an alumnus of the University, and his wife Ellnora Krannert made a gift of $16 million which made creation of the Center possible. Max Abramovitz, the architect of the Center, was also a UI alumnus.
The Holland Performing Arts Center is a performing arts facility located on 13th and Douglas Streets in downtown Downtown Omaha, Nebraska, Nebraska in the United States; it opened in October 2005. Designed by Omaha architectural firm HDR, Inc. in collaboration with Polshek Partnership Architects, the structure is owned and managed by Omaha Performing Arts, and specializes in events requiring an environment with good acoustics, including performances by touring jazz, blues and popular entertainers, as well as the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and Omaha Area Youth Orchestra. Kirkegaard Associates provided acoustics consulting and New York firm Fisher Dachs Associates provided theater planning and design consultation.
Blumenthal Performing Arts is located in Charlotte, North Carolina. It opened in 1992 and is named in honor of the people of the state of North Carolina and the Blumenthal Foundation established by I.D. Blumenthal who founded RSC Brands, the largest private donor to the capital campaign. The idea for the center dates back to the late 1970s. Momentum for the project grew in the 1980s resulting in a $15 million allocation from the state of North Carolina, approval of a $15 million bond by the citizens of Charlotte and an additional $32 million contributed by individuals, corporations and foundations. In 1987 the Belk Brothers donated a valuable piece of land as the site of the new theatre complex. Total construction cost for the Blumenthal Center was over $62 million.
The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is a performing arts center in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, USA, at 16th and Broadway, near the Power & Light District, the Sprint Center and the Crossroads Arts District. Its construction was a major part of the ongoing redevelopment of downtown Kansas City.
J. Christopher Jaffe was recognized for leadership in architectural-acoustic design.
The Pikes Peak Center for the Performing Arts is a concert auditorium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It serves as an entertainment, cultural, educational, and assembly center for the citizens of El Paso County, the Pikes Peak region, and the surrounding area.
The Westminster Rose Center is a performing arts and entertainment complex located in Westminster, California. It is the home of the Vietnamese American Philharmonic Orchestra and TNT Productions. It has also served as the host to many touring Broadway productions, dance companies, opera troupes, and was the temporary home of the Academy for the Performing Arts during the renovations of Huntington Beach High School.
Bilkent Concert Hall is a performing arts center in Turkey. It is located within the Bilkent University campus in Ankara. Home to the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the building hosts over 80 concerts per year. Besides the concert hall itself, the building houses seminar rooms, academic staff offices, classrooms and studios for the university's Faculty of Music and Performance Arts, together with an arena theatre for performances from theatre studies students.
LARES is an electronic sound enhancement system that uses microprocessors to control multiple loudspeakers and microphones placed around a performance space for the purpose of providing active acoustic treatment. LARES was invented in Massachusetts in 1988, by engineers working at Lexicon, Inc.
The Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations is a performance hall which opened in September 2002 in Richardson, Texas. The center is named for local philanthropist, Charles W. Eisemann, in recognition of a US$2,000,000 gift from the Eisemann Foundation Fund of The Communities Foundation of Texas.
JaffeHolden Acoustics, Inc. is a consulting firm which delivers Architectural Acoustics, Audio and Video Systems, and Information Technologies design services. Its clientele includes performance venues, houses of worship, educational institutions, museums, cruise ships, and legislative buildings.
An audio engineer helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, and reinforcement of sound. Audio engineers work on the "...technical aspect of recording—the placing of microphones, pre-amp knobs, the setting of levels. The physical recording of any project is done by an engineer ... the nuts and bolts." It's a creative hobby and profession where musical instruments and technology are used to produce sound for film, radio, television, music, and video games. Audio engineers also set up, sound check and do live sound mixing using a mixing console and a sound reinforcement system for music concerts, theatre, sports games and corporate events.
The Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House is an opera house located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas (USA).
The Hyogo Performing Arts Center (HPAC) is a performing arts center in the city of Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi Station operated by Hankyu Corporation. The Center was opened in 2005 to mark the ten-year anniversary of the Great Hanshin earthquake which largely devastated Nishinomiya and the surrounding cities.
The Robert and Judi Newman Center for the Performing Arts is located on the University of Denver campus in Denver, Colorado at the southwest corner of E. Iliff Ave. and S. University Blvd. Robert and Judi Newman were asked by then Chancellor Daniel L. Ritchie to spearhead the fundraising effort for the Center. They also made a substantial donation to the Center's fundraising efforts. The Newman Center officially opened in the fall of 2002 with the commencement of classes, and the three main performance venues officially opened in spring 2003.
