Review: The $73 million facility, featuring a concert hall with acoustics by Yasuhisa Toyota, shows promise in an opening program of orchestral showpieces. The Orange County Register, Sept. 18, 2011. CLICK HERE to read my review and see photos.
Soka Performing Arts Center opens with gala concert by Pacific Symphony
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classical life 
How would you compare the way the PSO sounds at Soka vs. Segerstrom? And do you have a favorite seating location at Segerstrom? I’ve only sat in the orchestra section which sounded good, but I’ve wondered if the sections higher up might have more bloom.
I find the seating higher up in Segerstrom to be a little too edgy and electric for my taste. Other music critics like it up there though (or at least one does) and I know some of the organizations’ honchos sit up there too, and seem to like it. I always sit in the orchestra section, near the back, in front of the terrace at the back of the first floor. I think the sound is best there, combining blend and transparency.
Too early for me to compare the PSO’s sounds in Soka and Segerstrom. They haven’t played enough in Soka yet to get comfortable there. At this point I prefer them in Segerstrom, but that’s to be expected. (I also didn’t have the greatest seats in Soka …)
It’s a handsome room, suggesting a plain version of Disney Concert Hall in L.A.
For a glimpse of another new concert hall in America that does Soka one better, because the building seen in the link below, and located in the Midwest, is more than a “plain version” of Disney Hall. If anything, it’s actually sort of a clone (or at least a fraternal twin), of Disney Hall:
http://www.bloomberg.com/photo/helzberg-concert-hall-/104185.html
The building in Kansas also opened this past weekend and, as with Soka, its acoustic properties were overseen by Yasuhisa Toyota. It makes me think of what the hall on Grand Avenue would be like if one suddenly found him or herself in an alternative universe.