BOZAR (The Centre for Fine Arts): Brussels, BELGIUM

The Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels (BOZAR, from the French nickname of the building "Beaux-arts") houses a nice concert hall in which I've performed in with a number of groups over the years. Of course, in this last year... tours and concerts have been completely missing from our lives, but it has been nice for me to resurface some of my old photos and remember a time when things were a bit different!

This particular tour was a tour with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, a group that is based in The Netherlands, but is composed from many musicians from around Europe (and sometimes further afield!) who form up to present some pretty nice concerts. It's been a real honour to be part of this orchestra, a group that I had only known by reputation from Australia... and I had never thought in a million years that I would end up being part of it and touring with them!

Anyway, enough of reminiscences and back to the BOZAR building! The building is host to a cinema and other exhibition spaces, but I have no experience with those areas of the building... I'm always finding myself in the concert hall for some reason!

Despite the stage being a little bit on the small side of things, the audience space is actually relatively large. Tiered seating gives the audience a good view of the stage (I'm afraid I can't really say how it sounds... I'm on the stage, and things always sound different from that position!).

I have to say that I've seen a similar set up in other buildings, and the better (or more modern ones) have the side seats facing the stage rather than having everything facing towards a central point. On the rare occasion that I've been in an audience, I've found that the side seats that point towards a middle (like in BOZAR) are really uncomfortable, as your body is always twisted around to face the stage or your neck is constantly turned. By the end of a concert, you are quite sore...

The building was constructed in the 1920s and it has this lovely style that reminds you of old films from that era. I'm not an architect, but it might be an "Art Deco" style? I think that was the sort of design asthetic of the era?

All around the building and concert hall section, there is this pleasant melding of stone and wood, touched off by the red scarlet of the seat trims. It's a very clean design to my eyes, and one that feels quite pleasing for my taste.

The design aesthetic also extends out to the back where the musicians are "stored". For this particular concert, I had staked out a spot in the common area to set up a computer and while away the time before the concert. We all have different ways of passing the time before a concert, some people like to practice, others like to read or something like that... me, I love to just pass the time playing a computer game! Not the most normal thing for this group... but I'm one of the young nerdy ones!