JaffeHolden Acoustics

History

In 1968, Jaffe Holden Acoustics was founded by acoustician Christopher Jaffe in Norwalk, Connecticut. The company first grew from Jaffe’s discovery that lightweight tunable reflector panels placed in the reverberant stage towers of multi-use theatres increased orchestral liveness, intimacy and warmth. Since these designs allowed acousticians to place overhead ceiling reflectors closer to the musicians, the shells improved on stage hearing to the benefit of orchestral ensemble and sectional balance. Some early challenges for JaffeHolden were designing a shell for the Youth Symphony concerts on the South Lawn of the White House sponsored by Jacqueline Kennedy; renovations of Lewisohn Stadium for the Metropolitan Opera and the Hollywood Bowl for the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and the design for the first touring symphonic stage used by the New York Philharmonic for their innovative series of free parks concerts in 1965.

Early in the company’s history, while working on a grant for the National Endowment for the Arts, Jaffe realized that the elitist image of orchestral performance and the formal seating arrangement of the typical concert hall were actually reducing attendance at these events. Researching older halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, JaffeHolden designed the first surround concert hall in the Western hemisphere, Sala Nezahualcoyotl Hall in Mexico City. JaffeHolden also developed the use of electronic reflections to provide needed aural information in specialized circumstances where physical acoustic solutions alone could not meet the required symphonic criteria due to budget constraints, building landmark restrictions and/or operational flexibility. Also known as ERES (Electronic Reflected Energy System), these systems have been successfully implemented in theaters and halls throughout the United States. Jaffe and current CEO Mark Holden’s "Concert Hall Shaper" revolutionized multi-use theater design in providing mixed-use theaters with the level of acoustic parameters found in a dedicated concert hall. This was first utilized in the Tokyo International Forum, and subsequently at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas and the Thelma Gaylord Theater at the Oklahoma City Civic Center.