As a crown jewel of Millennium Park, the Jay Pritzker Pavilion is one of Chicago's premier outdoor venues. Designed by architect Frank Gehry as the new home of the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, the venue's enormous ribbons of stainless steel billow above a town known for both its architecture and love of music, ranging from R&B and the blues to jazz and classical.
Located just off Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, the Pritzker Pavilion has 4000 permanent seats in front of the 95,000sq-ft Great Lawn that accommodates another 8000. A trellis of steel tubing spans both areas, serving as the supporting system for the house sound system, which includes LARES enhancement that simulates the reflected and reverberant energy of an indoor performance venue. The Grant Park Symphony Orchestra performs free weekly concerts during the summer.
Shure KSM series microphones were featured throughout the season on musical acts ranging from the Grant Park Symphony, mixed by Chris Willis, to solo piano, acoustic jazz and even the alternative rock of Wilco. Cutting across all these genres, Shure maintained a regular stage presence throughout the entire season.
"The KSM137 has worked out unbelievably well on viola, violin, harp, piano, celeste and percussion," symphony FOH engineer Chris Willis said. "Likewise, KSM32s can be heard regularly in my mix on solo piano and the choir, while the KSM44 stands in for French horns. The clarity of these mics, plus their smooth performance, are vital ingredients to my overall approach, which is to make it seem that there is no sound reinforcement at all."
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