Dalhousie Arts Centre – Architecture for the Arts
août 14 2025
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All hours are Atlantic Daylight Time (ADT) |
Dalhousie Arts Centre – Architecture for the ArtsPanel discussion |
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A panel discussion with some of the people who designed the Joseph Strug Concert Hall and the people who use it now on a daily basis. The goal of the discussion will be introducing the CITT/ICTS community to some of the design thinking that goes into creating a building for the performing arts and specifically small to mid-sized multivalent music performance rooms like the new Strug Hall at the Fountain School of Performing Arts. It is the continuation of a series of panel discussions at CITT/ICTS meetings trying to bridge the gap between the people who design performing art facilities and the people who actually work in them. To kick off the panel discussion, Thom will make a brief presentation on the Strug Room, with references to two current music rooms of similar scale and multivalent programmatic purpose. |
| Date, Time & Location: Thursday August 15 | 15:30 to 17:00 | FSPA - Joseph Strug Concert Hall, Main Stage |
| Duration: 90 mins |
| Level: General (for all) |
| Discipline: Architecture; AV Integration; Design |
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Panelists: Thomas Payne, John O'Keefe, Curtis Kasefang, Leonardo Perez, Cindy Lynn Townsend, and Jacob Caines. Design Team: Thomas Payne is one of Canada’s most creative and experienced theatre architects. His building designs include Toronto’s Young centre, the Stratford festival theatre renovation and, most recently, the Dalhousie Arts Centre in Nova Scotia. John O’Keefe has been responsible for the acoustic design of many of Canada’s favourite performing arts venues. His work spans the country, from the queen Elizabeth theatre renovation in Vancouver, the Esplanade Arts Centre in Medicine Hat, theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, to the Confederation Centre renovation in Charlottetown, PEI. Curtis Kasefang has designed, equipped and operated performance spaces throughout North America for more than 25 years. Including the Joseph Strug Concert Hall at Dalhousie. Prior to co-founding Theatre Consultants Collaborative, he set up and ran the lighting and sound departments at Theatre Projects Consultants’ U.S. office. Trained as a lighting designer, Curtis holds a BFA in theatre technology from SUNY Purchase. From the Fountain School of Performing Arts: Jacob Caines is a Conductor and Musicologist at Dalhousie's Fountain School of Performing Arts. An active clarinetist and performer, Jacob focusses on the work of living, Canadian, and QTBIPOC composers. His SSHRC funded PhD research discusses the urban scenography of performance, institutional and infrastructural hierarchies within classical music, and the mapping of how and where queer people create within cities, venues, as well as unexpected and non-traditional performance spaces. In addition to his work in the Maritimes, he has presented and performed in Helsinki, London, Montreal, Stockholm, Toronto, and Lucerne. Leonardo Perez is currently Associate Professor of Violin and Viola at the Fountain School of the Performing Arts. He is also conductor of the Dalhousie Symphony Orchestra and is the artistic director of the Dalhousie Chamber Music Residency Program. Cindy Townsend is a celebrated soprano and dedicated teaching artist known for her artistic versatility and dynamic, student-centered approach. Following a distinguished performance career across Canada and Europe, she now leads the DalVoice team and serves as a full-time Vocal Instructor at Dalhousie University’s Fountain School of Performing Arts, where she is also Music Director of DalOpera. Cindy is highly sought after as an adjudicator, educator, and mentor. |
