(gentle music) - We create beautiful spaces to connect us to music, to connect to the arts, and to connect to culture, and to connect to each other.

So in those spaces, we're essentially human.

(gentle classical music) But to have that side-by-side experience of sharing with others, that's an extraordinary achievement if architecture can do that.

(grand orchestral music) - On the University of Minnesota campus, the orchestra performed mostly in Northrop Auditorium.

Before this all was built, Stan Skrowaczewski was lobbying almost from the beginning of his tenure for a different home for the Minneapolis Symphony, now the Minnesota Orchestra.

He was very much aware that the hall didn't compare to so many of the wonderful European halls, especially, that he'd conducted in, as well as the best ones here in this country.

So he worked hard, and people were responsive.

Ken Dayton, John Pillsbury Jr., who was chair of the board at the time the hall opened, Sandy Bemis, Louis Zelly, Steve Pflaum was very involved.

So the community responded and the board organized to raise money for the hall.

- [Narrator] While the Symphony Brass Ensemble played joyful music, civic leaders donned hardhats, took up shovels, and turned over a few shovels full of ceremonial ground on which will stand the new concert hall in only about 15 months.

- [Skrowaczewski] Well, you can imagine what my feelings are.

This is a very, very historical great day, not only for musicians, but to the listeners and to the city.

- [Luella] An architectural firm, quite a contemporary one, Hugh Hardy, Holzman, and Pfeiffer built the original hall with the blue pipes in front to make it very informal and welcoming.

- The original hall, which was completed in 1974, was something quite iconic.

It was at a time when there were great ambitions in architecture.

We know that the original funds were really dedicated to the hall, to making an acoustically great hall with acquisition, Cyril Harris, and that there was an understanding that the lobbies would be temporary in a sense, that they couldn't accommodate the full audience, they didn't have the kind of patron amenities that one might not have even looked for at that time.

- John Pillsbury Jr. asked me to be the chair of the dedication concert, which was the concert being held that night, October 21st, 1974.

- [Narrator 1] Welcome to this dedication concert in this beautiful new architectural edition to Minneapolis Orchestra Hall.

- [Narrator 2] He will begin with his own orchestration of the "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" of Bach.

(tense orchestral music) - Stanislaw Skrowaczewski was a true visionary for this organization.

(tense orchestral music) To him, acoustics were almost everything.

The way he thought of the depth of sound, the balance of sound, the quality of sound, that meant the world to him, - The cubes were inspired by the 13-year-old son of the original architects of the hall from a comic book that his child was reading.

It was a Marvel comic book and the character was The Thing.

And that Thing was a guy that had rocks all over him, and when he would run, the rocks kind of fell off him.

And so, apparently that was the inspiration for the cubes on the ceiling, and then they follow down to the back of the stage.

So the embrace of the room is those cubes.

There are 114 of them, and they are essential to the acoustics.

So Cyril Harris, the acquisition, would've given the indication to the architects of how to refract sound within those spaces.

(light orchestral music) - This hall has really special acoustics, and it has warmth, and it has clarity, and it has volume.

When you are on this stage, you can play as soft as you want, and the person in the third tier in the back of the hall will hear the quality of that sound.

It's a very special room.

As we tour the world, we play in all the greatest halls of the world, and this is one of them.

There's very few halls that stand up to Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

The orchestra has evolved through its music directors, Edo de Waart came and was an incredible taskmaster, and the orchestra suddenly became super technical and really good, and then Eiji Oue came and gave us freedom, and we learned to play with great freedom, with Osmo, I think he brought a special definition to the orchestra.

It's kind of like looking at a Picasso painting where there's really stark lines, bright colors.

Everything's really defined.

With Thomas, it's almost impressionistic.

You think of the great French painters like Monet and Degas, and there's softer colors, beautiful colors, still a lot of depth.

(light orchestral music) Every one of the musicians has multiple stories that have affected them by working here in Orchestra Hall and with the Minnesota Orchestra, stories that are incredibly positive, that music really taught them a lesson about life, about humanity.

There have been so many guest artists and guest conductors.

These are giants of the musical world.

It's always a thrill to work with people who come in and bring a special talent to the stage.

- Orchestra Hall has reverberated with billions of notes, and it's infused with millions of memories of the people who have come through its doors.

And to know that that reverberates out into the community, into the world, it's remarkable.

(light orchestral music) - What we've seen over the 10 years since we've updated this hall is that it has the transparency from outside in and from inside out.

It has the choreography and flow of the social spaces into the hall and around and through the lobby spaces, almost its simplicity is a clarity that I think many halls being built today look for.

- The fact that we own this block, and as John Pillsbury said 50 years ago, "This is our house, but it is your house."

And I do think this block is so significant to not only the history but the future of Minneapolis.

- We love coming to Orchestra Hall because it's a moment to experience joy.

- There's a connection when you have a beautiful environment and art that makes it more personal and makes it come to life.

We just enjoy being in the space.

- It's exhilarating to be inside this building.

It's inviting and bright, and it feels so exciting to just walk in and know that I'm going to listen to something incredible.

- The warmth of the whole organization, the Minnesota Orchestra, and you, our dear audiences, have filled this hall over time with love and admiration for the arts.

I'm so proud to be part of the future of this space.

Happy 50th anniversary, Orchestra Hall.

(grand orchestral music) (audience applauding)