Address | Kings Domain Melbourne Australia |
---|---|
Coordinates | 37°49′24″S144°58′29″E / 37.8233149°S 144.9746821°E |
Owner | Government of Victoria |
Operator | The Arts Centre |
Capacity | Up to 10,000 (2,030 fixed seats) |
Surface | Concrete, grass |
Construction | |
Broke ground | 1958 |
Opened | 1959 |
Architect | Barry Patten |
General contractor | John Holland |
Tenants | |
Website | |
Arts Centre Melbourne | |
Type | Historic |
Criteria | b, d, f, g, h |
Designated | 21 September 2005 |
Reference no. | 105743 |
Official name | Sidney Myer Music Bowl |
Type | State Registered Place |
Designated | 19 April 2001 |
Reference no. | H1772 [1] |
Heritage Overlay number | HO908 [1] |
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is an outdoor bandshell performance venue in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is located in the lawns and gardens of Kings Domain on Linlithgow Avenue close to the Arts Centre and the Southbank entertainment precinct. It was opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies on 12 February 1959.
The businessman and philanthropist Sidney Myer inspired the construction of the building after attending the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. [2] A violinist who enjoyed music, Myer established free open-air concerts with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in 1929, which were always well attended by Melburnians. These free concerts continue to this day, now being held at the bowl itself. There are usually three or four concerts a year.
Upon his death in 1934, the Sidney Myer Fund was established to continue the tradition of philanthropy begun by its founder. The design and construction of a music bowl for the people of Melbourne was decided upon and funded by the fund.
The venue was officially opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies on 12 February 1959, and was attended by an audience of 30,000. [3] Later that month over 70,000 people attended to hear the American evangelist Billy Graham. [4]
The largest crowd ever for a concert event in Australia was The Seekers 1967 homecoming concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl which an estimated 200,000 people attended. [5] [6] The 2007 Guinness Book of World Records lists it as the greatest attendance at a concert in the Southern Hemisphere in history. [7] [8] This attendance is also included in The Australian Book of Records. [9] Melburnians were celebrating the annual Moomba Festival, a free community festival, and many thousands were enjoying other attractions but are included in the crowd estimate. [2] [10] Since then, international performers have included: ABBA, AC/DC, Metallica, Wings, Blondie, the Beach Boys, Crowded House, Dire Straits, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Merle Haggard, Pearl Jam, the Electric Light Orchestra, Paul McCartney, Midnight Oil, INXS, R.E.M., Kiri Te Kanawa, Daft Punk, Red Hot Chili Peppers and, in more recent times, Bon Jovi, Guns N' Roses, Soundgarden, Tool, Kanye West, Paramore, Neil Young, Lenny Kravitz, Swedish House Mafia, Blink-182, The Black Keys, Lorde, Afrojack, KSHMR, Will Sparks, Timmy Trumpet, Carnage, Axwell, The Cat Empire, Guns N' Roses and The Chainsmokers.
In 1980, administration of the bowl was handed over to the Arts Centre Melbourne from the Sidney Myer Fund by Ken Myer, Sidney Myer's son. In 1984 a temporary ice-skating rink was created on the bowl's stage for use during winter months. The venue was closed for a major renovation in 2000 to bring the facilities up to an appropriate standard, and was reopened by the Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks, at Carols by Candlelight on Christmas Eve, 2002. Recent works on the lawns extending from the seating and stage, and the construction of a fence and gates has reduced the total capacity to a little over 12,000. [2]
In 2009, the 50th anniversary of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl was celebrated. The Arts Centre put together a four-day commemorative program of free events. From 12 to 15 February, the festivities featured two concerts from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, including a recreation of their 1959 opening concert of the bowl and a romantic Valentine's Day program; a salute to 50 years of rock and roll at the bowl from RocKwiz and an afternoon picnic of family entertainment. There was also an informative exhibition at the St Kilda Road Foyer Gallery of the Arts Centre and a commemorative website depicting 50 years of the bowl. [11]
The bowl's canopy consists of a thin membrane made out of half an inch of weather-proofed plywood sheeted on both sides with aluminium attached to a cobwebbed frame of steel cables and supported by 21.3 metres (70 ft) masts pivoted to the earth. The total area of the canopy is 4,055 square metres (43,650 sq ft). The main cable at the edge of the canopy comprises 7 ropes, each about 9 cm in diameter and 173 metres (568 ft) long, anchored deep into the ground in concrete blocks. Longitudinal cables hold up the roof and transverse cables hold it down.
Project design was by Yuncken Freeman and Griffiths and Simpson during 1956. The project architect was Barry Patten. Construction by John Holland commenced in 1958 with an innovative system of cables laced together and covered with aluminium faced plywood sandwich panels. [4] [12] [13] To ensure the structure would be watertight yet aerodynamically stable and flexible, new construction techniques were developed.[ citation needed ] Ground anchors were required to be corrosion resistant. The shell also needed to be acoustically correct. Construction entailed input from a number of engineering and scientific organisations including the Aeronautical Research Laboratories and CSIRO Forest Products Division. [4]
Unlike the Hollywood Bowl's concrete shell structure in Los Angeles which inspired it, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl combined a tensile structural system with a free-form roof. The structural design predates by nearly 10 years noted German architect and engineer Frei Otto and his experiments in using lightweight tensile and membrane structures. [14] Otto's design of Munich's Olympic Park for the 1972 Olympics and the temporary West German pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada, were heavily influenced by Patten's design of the Myer Music Bowl.
The Sidney Myer Music Bowl is registered on the Victorian Heritage list for its cultural importance to Victoria, its architectural importance as the largest, purpose-built, permanent outdoor performance venue in Australia and its engineering experimentation in new forms of construction involving use of membranes and a tensile structural system. [3]
In 2002 the building refurbishment was awarded the Melbourne Prize. In 2009 the Sidney Myer Music Bowl was awarded the Enduring Architecture Award. [15] [16] Later in the same year the project won the 2009 National Award for Enduring Architecture. [17]
There is a fixed seating area which can hold 2,030 people. Behind this area are sloping lawns which can accommodate up to 10,000. The stage area is 27.4 metres wide by 19.5 metres deep (90 ft × 64 ft). [2]
The bowl holds major events including Vision Australia's Carols by Candlelight, held every year on Christmas Eve, televised each year by the Nine Network.
Past major events held at The Bowl include Piknic Electronik, Music from the Home Front and Midsummer Festival. [18]
The Music Victoria Awards are an annual awards night celebrating Victorian music. They commenced in 2006. Best Venue was introduced in 2016.
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | Sidney Myer Music Bowl | Best Venue (Over 500 Capacity) | Nominated | [19] [20] |
2022 | Sidney Myer Music Bowl | Best Large Venue (Metro) | Nominated | [21] |
Arts Centre Melbourne, originally known as the Victorian Arts Centre and briefly called the Arts Centre, is a performing arts centre consisting of a complex of theatres and concert halls in the Melbourne Arts Precinct, located in the central Melbourne suburb of Southbank in Victoria, Australia.
In structural engineering, a tensile structure is a construction of elements carrying only tension and no compression or bending. The term tensile should not be confused with tensegrity, which is a structural form with both tension and compression elements. Tensile structures are the most common type of thin-shell structures.
Sidney Myer was a Belarusian-born Australian businessman and philanthropist, best known for founding Myer, Australia's largest chain of department stores.
Kings Domain is an area of parklands in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It surrounds Government House Reserve, the home of the governors of Victoria, the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, and the Shrine Reserve incorporating the Shrine of Remembrance.
Victorian Opera is an opera company based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company was founded in 2005 by the Victorian Government as a replacement for the Victoria State Opera. It commenced operations in January 2006 with Richard Gill as Artistic Director. Richard Mills is the current Artistic Director. The company is supported through government funding, patron contributions and corporate sponsorship.
The Forum Theatre is a historic theatre and former cinema now used as a live music and event venue located on the corner of Flinders Street and Russell Street in Melbourne, Australia.
Barry Beauchamp Patten was an Australian Olympic alpine skier and architect who designed Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl.
The Zelman Memorial Symphony Orchestra is the longest-running community orchestra in Melbourne, Australia.
Dame Margery Merlyn Myer was an Australian philanthropist, who was notable for her charitable work.
Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) is a venue and organisation for live music in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The organisation programs and presents more than 500 concerts and events a year across diverse range of musical genres including classical and chamber music, contemporary, pop, folk, rock, electronica, indie, jazz, cabaret and world music. Opened in 2009, the centre is Melbourne's second largest auditorium for classical music.
Future Entertainment is a Melbourne based, youth-focused electronic music entertainment company created by dance-music event organiser Mark James in 1993. Its objective was to present annual music festivals at Australian venues and landmarks.
The Astra Chamber Music Society is a concert organisation for choral music and contemporary performance, based in Melbourne, Australia and under the musical direction of John McCaughey and Andrew Byrne.
Margaret Josephine Nisbett MBE was an Australian coloratura soprano.
The Melbourne Arts Precinct is home to a series of galleries, performing arts venues and spaces located in the Southbank district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It includes such publicly-funded venues as Arts Centre Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria and Southbank Theatre, along with various offices and training institutions of arts organisations.
Hamer Hall, formerly the Melbourne Concert Hall, is an Australian concert hall. The 2,466-seat hall, the largest indoor venue at the Arts Centre Melbourne, is mostly used for orchestral and contemporary music performances. It was designed by Roy Grounds as part of the cultural centre which comprised the National Gallery of Victoria and the Arts Centre Melbourne. It was opened as the Melbourne Concert Hall in 1982 and was renamed Hamer Hall in honour of Sir Rupert Hamer shortly after his death in 2004.
A Music Victoria study finds Melbourne hosts 62,000 live concerts annually, making it one of the live music capitals of the world. Victoria is host to more than three times the live performance national average, making it the live music capital of the country. Melbourne is host to more music venues per capita than Austin, Texas.
Kenneth Baillieu Myer, was an American-born Australian patron of the arts, humanities and sciences; diplomat, administrator, businessman and philanthropist. He was a member of the notable Melbourne retailing Myer family. Myer made significant philanthropic and personal contributions to the development of major national institutions, most notably the Howard Florey Laboratories of Experimental Physiology and Medicine, the School of Oriental Studies at the University of Melbourne, the Victorian Arts Centre and the National Library of Australia. In 1959, he became Benefactor and Co-Founder of The Myer Foundation with his brother Baillieu Myer AC. He was also the founding chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Yuncken Freeman was an Australian architecture firm. Founded in Melbourne, Victoria in 1933, Yuncken Freeman grew steadily, particularly in the post-war economic boom to be a sizeable firm in Australia, with branch offices in Hong Kong as well as other parts of south-east Asia, until its dissolution during the late 1980s.
Emporium Melbourne is a luxury shopping centre on the corner of Lonsdale and Swanston streets in Melbourne, Australia. Occupying the former Lonsdale Street site of Myer's Melbourne store, Emporium opened in 2014 following extensive redevelopment. The centre includes a food court, specialty stores and several multi-level anchor retailers. Emporium forms part of a 188,000 square metres (2,020,000 sq ft) precinct of linked shopping centres in the Melbourne central business district, which also includes the Myer and David Jones city stores, Melbourne Central, General Post Office and Elizabeth Street's The Strand.
The Maggie Edmond Enduring Architecture Award is an architecture prize presented annually since 2003 at the Victorian Architecture Awards by the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA). The award is presented to recognise long lasting, authentic and enduring architecture with usually more than 25 years since the completion of construction.
Media related to Sidney Myer Music Bowl at Wikimedia Commons