Artec has been selected to provide Design and Planning Services (Theatre Planning, Theatre Equipment Design, Sound & Communication Systems Design, Economic Feasibility, and Acoustics) for The Icelandic National Concert and Conference Centre, Reykjavik. Scheduled to open in late 2009, the Centre will feature an 1800-seat concert hall, which will be the permanent home of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. It will also be used by various other local and touring orchestral ensembles. The Centre will also feature a 450-seat recital/rehearsal hall and a 750-seat conference hall, each accommodating a wide variety of events. Earlier, Artec conducted utilization studies and prepared pro forma financial projections of the operations of both the music performance spaces and conference facilities.

We are currently preparing preliminary conceptual designs for these facilities, that will be used for the international competition to select the developer and architect. The complete facility will include a 250-unit hotel, 15,000 sqm of retail space, and other related program elements.

Dr. Joel E. Rubin, Artec Principal Consultant, has been nominated for the 2004 Wally Russell Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering work in the lighting industry.

The prestigious "Wally" Award was established in 1992 and is given yearly, in memory of Wally Russell to honor an individual who exhibits a strong sense of leadership, a commitment to technological innovation, and a career of service to the lighting industry. The winner is selected through a voting process open to the lighting industry at large. Dr. Rubin reports his proudest achievement is having nurtured and mentored a small army of professionals with a love of lighting, who have each earned leading places in the profession.

Additional nominees this year are George C. Izenour and William Klages, of whom Dr. Rubin says, "I am honored by being nominated in the same group as these two great professionals." The 2004 "Wally" will be presented as part of the Lighting Dimensions and Entertainment Design conference in Las Vegas in October.

Industry professionals can vote for the candidate of their choice by emailing their vote to Ellen Lampert-Gréaux at elgreaux@primediabusiness.com. Deadline is August 15.

Robert Wilson's new production, I La Galígo, recently premiered in the Theatre at Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay in Singapore. The highly successful show was co-produced by Esplanade and rehearsed in the performing arts venue.

Dubbed a "four-hour spectacle of song and dance, mantra and martial arts" by Newsweek, I La Galígo takes its inspiration from the Indonesian creation myth "Sureq Caligo". Compared in adventure content to Homer's Odyssey but six times as lengthy, "Sureq Caligo" had until recently, never been compiled into a single manuscript or fully translated. Despite the fact that few besides scholars had read the text, a strong oral tradition allowed it to influence the music, costumes, architecture, and ritual of Indonesia's South Sulaesi people in a way that still resonates.

The project brought together a mixture of traditional and modern performing artists from numerous Indonesian ethnic groups. The music for I La Galígo is inspired by the melodies and traditional musical elements of the people of South Sulawesi. A primary consideration in putting together the instruments of the I La Galígo ensemble has been to work with traditional instruments, augmented by specially made "new" instruments.

The show will tour co-presenting venues including the Musiktheater in Amsterdam and festivals in Ravenna, Lyon and Barcelona before culminating at New York's Lincoln Center Festival next year.

Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay is one of the world's newest and most acclamed performing arts centers. Opened in 2002, it boasts a highly acclaimed 1800-seat concert hall, 2000-seat theatre (designed in the tradition of Italian horseshoe opera houses), three smaller performance and rehearsal rooms and an outdoor performance venue. Artec provided comprehensive acoustics design services to this project.