New Concert Hall in Birmingham to open in 2012

The auditorium, with its associated research, teaching and rehearsal facilities, has been designed by Glenn Howells Architects. It will house the university’s department of music and will complete the redbrick semi-circle of buildings which have been the heart of the university since 1909.

It will be suitable performances from solo voice through electroacoustic music, to a full symphony orchestra.

Professor John Whenham, head of the university’s department of music, said: ‘The auditorium will provide a wonderful space in which the University’s rehearsals and concerts can take place. It will be unique in Birmingham in its size, adaptability and audience capacity and will provide facilities from which not only the university, but also local community users can benefit. It will also provide our undergraduate and postgraduate composers with the opportunity to try out their work in the acoustics of a first-rate concert hall.’

The University of Birmingham has around 27,000 students and 6,000 members of staff and a turnover of £419m. Birmingham encompasses not only the lakeside setting and green landscape of its Edgbaston campus, but also has bases across Birmingham as well at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford upon Avon, the Ironbridge Institute at the Ironbridge Gorge and at its outward bound Priestley Centre on the edge of Lake Coniston in the Lake District.

Around £3.6m of the £5m cost of development has already been raised from university alumni and other supporters. A public fundraising campaign including an opportunity to name a seat in the auditorium will be launched in the autumn.