With the death of 96-year-old Frank Gehry last week, America lost one of its most innovative and visionary architects.
One of his designs is credited with transforming Miami Beach's architectural — and musical — landscape.
The Gehry-designed New World Center sits just a stones-throw away from the old Lincoln Theatre, where the New World Symphony was previously based.
The orchestral academy was co-founded in 1987 by Gehry's long-time friend, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.
During the New World Center's grand opening celebration in January of 2011, Tilson Thomas told WLRN that he wanted to give the Symphony's gifted young musicians — called Fellows — a state-of-the-art training facility.
But he also wanted the general public to experience classical music in a new kind of space.
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"I think the idea of the openness of the building is very much a part of his [Gehry's] feeling about Miami," said Tilson Thomas.
"There's so much natural light in this building. And the light is changing all the time, and as the light changes, our perspective on all the shapes in the building changes. So it's really like we're in a new building every hour of the day," he said.
When WLRN spoke to Gehry during that same 2011 grand opening, he was subdued and modest when discussing his work.
He said his building, with a 756-seat performance hall at its heart, just "fits" Miami.
"It seems comfortable in its place in relation to its other buildings," he said. "I love to play with natural light and to manipulate it around things. It's living, because it's nature."
But artificial light also has its place at the New World Center — chiefly on the huge exterior projection wall, where audiences in the adjacent park can watch free live WALLCAST® Concerts of what's happening inside.
When it opened, a New York Times music critic wrote that the New World Center had the potential to be a "game-changer" in the world of classical music.
In a statement mourning Gehry's passing, New World Symphony President and CEO Howard Herring wrote:
“Our Fellows are chosen for their artistic excellence and independent thinking. Frank Gehry’s design inspires them every day. Their creative spirits will be informed by the environment he designed for them. All who enter the New World Center, Fellows and audiences alike, will find themselves under the influence of his genius, now and into the future.”
