Schermerhorn Symphony Center

Where can you rock out to live country music and enjoy the inspiring sounds of a world-class orchestra in the same evening? Only in Nashville. Here you can experience both within two city blocks. This tour’s last stop is the Schermerhorn Symphony Center. This Neo-Classical building features a shoe-box style performance hall that seats over 1,800 people. Its design by David M. Schwarz Architects, along with Earl Swensson Associates and Hastings Associates, was inspired by the world’s great concert halls, and after three years of construction, it opened to the public in 2006. The building’s exterior is dressed in Indiana limestone, and a monumental portico entrance faces north toward Broadway. A colonnaded, formal garden and two flanking wings with end pavilions face the Music City Walk of Fame Park to the west. The performance hall features natural interior light through thirty soundproof, clerestory windows. The hall’s walls are hard plaster on concrete featuring columns that act as high frequency diffusers, and the walls are hardwood, including cherry wood. The hall’s movable floor allows it to function as a concert venue and as an open ballroom. A custom-built concert organ designed by Schoenstein & Co. with 3,668 pipes provides an expressive range of sound. The Center also houses the Mike Curb Family Music Education Hall, which accommodates smaller performances and events.

In May 2010, the Schermerhorn sustained approximately $40 million of damage in the historic flooding of the nearby Cumberland River. At the peak of the flood, the lower parts of the building were filled with twenty-four feet of water. The hall successfully reopened eight months later.