A&E: Setting the Stage

Excitement is mounting as Edmond prepares to usher in a new age of world-class entertainment. Opening in September, Armstrong Auditorium will be the spectacular new home of Armstrong International Cultural Foundation’s performing arts series.

Marketing Director Shane Granger remarks that, “With the completion of the auditorium, Edmond’s cultural renaissance has taken another giant leap forward. Armstrong Auditorium is a $20 million tax-free gift to the citizens of Edmond.”

The auditorium’s debut performance will feature Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” on September 5th. Throughout the season, concert enthusiasts will enjoy choral, dance, string, piano, brass and wind from a choice of five intimately-proportioned seating areas. The hall will feature such headline performances as the Vienna Boys Choir, the Canadian Brass, the Russian National Ballet Theatre, pianists Andrè Watts and The 5 Browns, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet and the Romeros Guitar Quartet, among others.

Armstrong International Cultural Foundation formed in north Edmond in 1996 to forge a new era of the rich cultural and humanitarian traditions begun by philanthropist Herbert W. Armstrong. The foundations’s new concert hall is a crowning achievment representing two and a half years of architectural and engineering excellence.

“It is a sumptuous feast for the senses; visually stunning, acoustically brilliant, culturally rich and physically luxurious. It presents a peerless setting for enjoying the world’s greatest performances,” Granger reveals.

As elegant as it is in form, the auditorium is equally meticulous in function. Carefully scaled seating creates superior acoustical and visual effects that rival world-class concert halls in Amsterdam, Boston and Vienna.

Grandly perched on a wooded enclave near Oak Tree National, Armstrong’s 823-seat concert hall is a cultural jewel. Towering columns grace the entry and rise over a generous portico where guests can spill onto the Grand Mall to enjoy an evening breeze and take in yet another masterpiece.  

Dominating the view, a 40,000-gallon reflecting pool is anchored by the stunning Swans in Flight bronze and steel handiwork of internationally acclaimed British sculptor Sir David Wynne. Masterfully crafted to depict the five stages of a swan taking flight, each bird weighs nearly a ton and boasts a wingspan of 13-15 feet. Glorious in scope, the sculpture is spritzed with six water jets to emulate the appearance of motion in flight.

Breathtaking cultural wonders continue indoors, treating patrons to global enrichment around every corner. The hall spans nearly 45,000 square feet and rises to 80 feet at its highest point. Three soaring Caramel Onyx walls quarried in Azerbaijan and polished in Italy are set in distinguished book-matched panels. Swarovski®-trimmed chandeliers sparkle overhead with decisive elegance, dancing with reflection against the sky-high wall of windows overlooking the Grand Mall.

Every detail of the new auditorium’s world-class attractions, both on and off stage, echoes an age of refinement that will delight seasoned concert enthusiasts and newcomers alike. “This is concert-going the way it ought to be,” Granger says. “Our reward is the joy on the faces of our patrons.”

The Armstrong Auditorium Box Office is located at 14400 S. Bryant Avenue, at Bryant and Waterloo, 1.5 miles east of Oak Tree. For tickets, call 285-1010 or you can order tickets on their website at
www.ArmstrongAuditorium.org.