The First "Rehearsal"!

Last night we inaugurated the Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall!

Breaking in the new rehearsal space

 A 10 piece brass ensemble with members of the VO Orchestra met at our new space. First we fed them pizza, and then they helped assemble all our new music stands (which are sponsored by our generous VO supporters). 

And then, once they had stands to hold it, they played the very first music to be heard in the O'Brian Centre for Vancouver Opera!

And the band played on....

It sounded great! The music could be heard throughout the entire building, which will give those of us upstairs something to listen to as we work. 

And that was only 10 players - it'll be even more spectacular once the entire orchestra is there for West Side Story rehearsals in a few weeks.

Thanks, Louie!

 Martha Lou Henley was there, too. She's a good friend of VO and several other arts organizations in Canada. Without her, this new space wouldn't be possible, so it's named the Martha Lou Henley Rehearsal Hall in her honour.

Bag o'foam

The black-dotted panels you see in front of the players are the makings of our new dancer-friendly floor. It's being installed as we speak.

The black parts are foam squares, which are glued onto boards.

Foam, meet Glue

The boards are then flipped over (so the foam faces down) and masonite will be laid on top.


 And once all that is done, the floor will be painted, and voila, we'll have a nice new surface that will support our casts, orchestra and chorus for years to come.