- Henry Ashburn
Vilar PAC 2021 Renovations, Beaver Creek, CO
Opened in 1998, Vilar Performing Arts Center is a high-end, technically-unusual, handsome, and successful auditorium situated below a plaza and skating rink in the center of the Beaver Creek Resort Community. The 530 seat theater hosts chamber and symphony orchestras, popular music events, chorus, jazz, dance, drama, musical theater, as well as conventions.
Due to the the room’s constrained acoustical volume buried between an ice rink above and underground stream below, MCH acoustically-coupled the stage volume into the hall to extend its reverberance for orchestra. The theater is both warm and intimate, visually and acoustically. With its variable-acoustics, the hall provides both rich reverberant, envelopmental acoustics for music and clear intelligibility for speech.
Béla Fleck says it’s “magic” to play the Vilar, while Trace Bundy, AKA The Acoustic Ninja, called it a highlight of his tour. “It’s hard to find a better-sounding venue” Bundy says. “This is the No. 1 house for sounds and beauty” says musician Art Garfunkel. “It’s better than fabulous.”
23 years later, MCH has been retained once again to assist in technical systems upgrades including the following:
- Variable acoustic banners
- HVAC heating/cooling capabilities and air filtration
- House audio system
In late April 2021, MCH visited the site for the first time in numerous years to assess the theater's conditions and kick-off design of the near-future upgrades and renovations.
More information about Vilar PAC including ticketing and calendar of events can be found here.