Review of a Better Concert Hall

While you were dancing in the aisles at Disney Hall, I was attending
Andrew's Winter Orchestra Concert at Santa Monica High School's Barnum Hall.

SAMOHI's Barnum Hall is as traditional as theatre as Disney Hall is
unconventional. Barnum Hall was built as a 1937 WPA project in a clean and
purposeful Art Deco style as a Proscenium Theatre (as opposed to Disney's
Theatre in the Round) and seats approximately 1800 people comfortably with
excellent sight lines and sparkling sound.

Barnum Hall has just been reopened after an extensive reconditioning and
addition of modern facilities. The theatre is beautifuly presented, the
equivalent if not better of any municipal perfromance facility in the world.
Fresh paint, carpet, tiles and mostly new seating (the upper balcony still
has the 1880's seating that was donated to the theatre when it opened in the
1930's) greets patrons. A new orchestra pit elevator, a sonic shell for
orchestra performances and a Wurlitzer theatre organ have been added or are
being added. The orginal Art Deco fire curtain has been painstakingly
restored and is worth the price of admission alone. If you judge your public
buildings by the restrooms, Barum Hall's freshly tiled water closets are
welcome relief to aged bladders. Ample free parking is available on campus
and at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium (a somewhat less successful example
of Mid-Century Modern Public Architecture.)

The Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District encourages every student in
the district to participate in music education in some form. If you do not
play an instrument, you are encouraged to sing. The SMMUSD's philosophy is
that music education stimulates students academically. Consequently, Santa
Monica schools produces hundreds of scholar-musicians each year for which
the school district is justifiably famous for. This year, SAMOHI's orchestra
will travel to Vienna and Prague for performances.

On this night, all three symphony orchestras performed: Andrew plays cello
in the "Freshman" orchestra, and there were performance by the "Junior
Varsity" and "Varsity" orchestras. I describe the orchestra in sports terms
because participation in Orchestra at SAMOHI is as prestigious and socially
important as playing for the football team at some other school.

Larry and Anita Steinberg, Stephanie and I were treated to excellant
performances by all three orchestras, and I am willing to match the
performance by SAMOHI's Varsity orchestra against any professional
orchestra. Parental pride knows no bounds when your scruffy, video game
playing, teenage slacker is turned out in a dark suit and combed hair to
play his instrument beautifully as part of an orchestra.

It's too bad Andrew's parental grandparents parents chose Klezmer at the
Disney rather than classical at the Barnum.

Scott
December 17, 2003