Optimum seats for a concert?

Abstract7: Some muscians I know tend to prefer the Terrace D on the left. This is the piano side (you said stage right above), but it is considered the left side of the hall for ticket purposes. Start there. What night/series do you usually go?

The Kennedy Center is better since the renovations when Slatkin came a few years ago. Not sure what are the best seats.

Abstract7: For sound as the only consideration in the Meyerhoff in Baltimore, the best seats are high in the back (Terrace D and Center). These are also the cheapest seats. The sound is balanced with a wide sound stage field. Terrace C is good too. You just have to not be bothered by being up high.

I sit in an upper box over the stage on the left. I guess this is near field listening in audiophile terms. But I like to watch. With pianists I look right down on the keys and can see everything. The sound is very clear there, because it basically comes straight up.

As another rule of thumb, if the hall was built for a symphony orchestra it will have decent sound almost anywhere. Some multi-purpose halls have problems. George Mason University has a visually stunning arts center and an excellent schedule of events, but if you sit in the back-half of the hall forget it. The cheap seats in the back sound like you are in another room from the orchestra.

Then there are amazing places like the historic Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts. This was a union hall built in 1857 and is used now as a concert hall among other things. It is one of the best concert halls in the world accoustically. It is one of Yo Yo Ma's favorite places to play recitals. The Boston Baroque's B-Minor Mass (Bach) recording on Telarc was recorded there. They attract major orchestras and groups from all over the world.

Mechanics Hall is just a large room, not a theater. The classical schedule (there are others) is at http://www.musicworcester.org/calendar.html

See the attached link of a list of 76 great concert halls from around the world. (Mechanics Hall is on the list.)

http://www.fact.usu.edu/ece3260/Module6/WebAct/WebAct6.html