New singers’ stand in Mežaparks in Riga (Latvia) impresses with outstanding acoustics and unique architecture. 13,000 voices and 30,000 listeners celebrated their Baltic identity for four hours.
From June 30 to July 9, 2023, music enthusiasts met in the Latvian capital Riga at the newly designed open-air stage in Mežaparks (Forest Park) at the Dance and Singing Festival, which takes place only every five years. A choir of 13,000 singers presented a wide-ranging program lasting more than four hours at the final concert, which delighted the audience not only because of its versatility and vocal perfection, but also because of the brilliant, natural acoustics.
Under the visionary direction of Latvian architects Juris Poga and Austris Mailitis, a unique building has been created in Riga’s Forest Park. Müller-BBM Building Solutions is responsible for the acoustic concept.
The central acoustic element, the concave choir stand, was completely redesigned. It consists of tree-like supports that grow together to form a stable spatial framework. The outstanding acoustics of the imposing open-air stage are based on 510 convexly curved reflector elements of different sizes, which prevent disturbing focusing effects and direct the sound to the audience in the desired way. The spatial analogy to the amphitheater gives the choir a natural but specific sound.
All the calculations carried out by our team of experts and the measures derived from them have led to an optimization of the acoustics, making the musical events an unforgettable sound experience.