ACOUSTICS

When it opened in 1913, Hill Auditorium was hailed as a “monument to perfect acoustics.” The excellent acoustics, a result of collaboration by architect Albert Kahn with noted acoustical engineer Hugh Tallant, are known world-wide and have made the auditorium a favorite venue for legions of famous musicians and other artists, as well as numerous noted speakers. For more than 80 years (1913–1994), the popular and highly acclaimed May Festival made its home in Hill Auditorium, featuring such renowned orchestras as the Boston Festival Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Many other important community and University events have taken place in the auditorium, including commencements, honors convocations, and seven UM presidential inaugurations.

An enthusiastic staff correspondent for the local newspaper wrote in 1913, following the first May Festival held in Hill, “Orpheus came into his own here Wednesday night and in a shrine of word-defying beauty hovered over a vast worshipping multitude and touched them with the spirit of a new consciousness. So perfect is the hall that there was not one of the 5,000, whether he sat in the first row or the topmost corner seat in the second balcony, but had full and unobstructed view of the stage and heard without reverberation or echo every note, however soft or however shrill.”