Since 1941 La Jolla Music Society has enhanced the vitality and has deepened the cultural life of San Diego by presenting and producing a dynamic range of performing arts for the community. That artistic inspiration and passion continues with the development of The Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, known as The Conrad.

The Conrad will serve as a heart of cultural, arts education and community event activity in La Jolla, bringing world-class performances to the community and be the new permanent home of La Jolla Music Society. The new performing arts center, which will be located at 7600 Fay Avenue in La Jolla, will include a 500-seat concert hall, a 140-seat flexible use space, new offices for La Jolla Music Society, rehearsal rooms and a large open courtyard. The Conrad is expected to open early 2019. In addition to holding world-class performances, The Conrad will be available to rent for education performances, corporate conferences, weddings or a myriad of other uses by individuals and organizations making the venue an ideal community partner.

DESIGN

Community spirit was elemental to the building’s design so La Jolla Music Society went through a yearlong competitive process to select an architecture firm that had extensive experience building acclaimed music halls and could build a distinctive and beautiful performing arts center that would immediately be recognized as having its roots in La Jolla. EPSTEIN JOSLIN Architects, Inc., from Cambridge, Massachusetts, were selected from a field of 15 firms across America to design the performing arts center. EPSTEIN JOSLIN Architects is renowned for its expertise in creating performing spaces such as the Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, Massachusetts and the Boston Symphony’s Seiji Ozawa Hall. The firm has a deep understanding of how a venue can enhance a performance experience, as well as the neighborhood and the cultural landscape of San Diego, making them the perfect match for this performing arts center. While The Conrad will be a 49,000-square-foot facility, the concert hall is designed to keep the relationship between the audience and the performers as intimate and direct as possible.

ACOUSTICS

The ideal sound environment—be it for a concert hall, a recording studio or other facility—fundamentally depends on three variables: room acoustics, sound system and quietness. The Conrad aims to be known as a music hall, internationally recognized for its excellent acoustics. For that reason, La Jolla Music Society engaged Yasuhisa Toyota, president of Nagata Acoustics America to develop a concert hall that will be acoustically-exceptional. With offices in Tokyo, Los Angeles and Paris, Nagata Acoustics, Inc. is a leader in providing the best technologically advanced acoustical design services and the company has worked on many important concert venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall,Hamburg’s Elbephilharmonie and Paris’ Philharmonie de Paris.

CONSTRUCTION

After vetting many general contractors we are proud to work with DPR Construction. With offices across the United States, DPR Construction is consistently one of San Diego’s top-ranked builders and has been named #1 Best Place to Work. Nationally, DPR Construction has worked on many performances spaces such as Cobb Energy Performing Arts, Library of Congress NAVCC and Wiltern Theatre. Locally their projects include work at The Old Globe Theatre and the Illumina Amphitheatre.