Brown Theatre Orchestra Pit Expansion

Expanded Orchestra Pit to Be Ready Before Opening of 2009 Kentucky Opera Season and Will Accommodate Sixty-Six-Member Orchestra for New Home of Kentucky Opera

Louisville, KY – Louisville’s historic W.L. Lyons Brown Theatre is currently undergoing a major renovation of its orchestra pit as it prepares to become the permanent home of Kentucky Opera. The expanded orchestra pit will accommodate up to sixty-six musicians in an area under the stage that previously had space for only thirty. The renovations will be complete by September 25, 2009 when La Traviata opens Kentucky Opera’s Brown-Forman 2009 Fall Season accompanied by the Louisville Orchestra.

With the newly expanded orchestra pit, Kentucky Opera’s permanent performance space at the Brown Theatre “aligns the artistic output with the physical dimensions of the facility to truly make for a grand opera experience,” said Allan Cowen, President and CEO of the Fund for the Arts, the organization that owns the Brown Theatre. Similar in size to world-renowned opera houses such as the Copenhagen Opera House with 1,500 seats and the Opera Theatre at the Sydney Opera House with 1,507 seats, the Brown Theatre has 1,400 seats and is an intimate venue where the old world splendor appropriately matches the magnificence of traditional grand opera.

“This is a major renovation that will truly enhance the artistic output of the Kentucky Opera,” said David Roth, General Director of Kentucky Opera. “The scale of the change is quite dramatic, and will not only allow for a full orchestra, but also larger sets and more complex lighting.”

The total cost of the renovation is anticipated to be between $250,000-260,000. Major funders of the renovation are Owsley and Christy Brown and Hilliard Lyons.