Making memories at the new National Music Centre in Calgary
A new national home for Canadian music opens in Calgary
ON A BRIGHT spring day in Calgary, three months before it officially opened its doors on July 1, Studio Bell, home of the new National Music Centre, hosted its first historic musical moment. Flanked by fellow Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Tom Cochrane and Buffy Sainte-marie, Burton Cummings mounted his own nameplate on the first physical exhibit of the hall’s members. Such a moment had previously been impossible — no hall, no exhibit, after all — but music fans will soon be able to visit the glittering terracotta-tilecovered Studio Bell in Calgary’s downtown East Village and see not just the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, but also the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame Collection and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, all three of which now have a physical home in the new institution. The building has more than 2,000 square metres of gallery space, or “stages,” created to reflect a music festival experience and featuring an open design that allows music to flow throughout five floors in the east building, drawing visitors from sound to sound. The halls of fame, for instance, are on the Celebrating Music floor, while the Making Music floor is dedicated to the science of instruments and Canadian music technology. Other galleries include the Power of Music floor, where interactive exhibits explore musical inspirations, the Music Mosaic floor, which focuses on the people and cultures of Canadian music, and the Canada Music Square floor, which will regularly host live acts. Each floor has a live performance space, and larger shows will take place in the 300-seat Performance Hall. The west building, meanwhile, reached via a fifth-floor bridge that spans 4th Street SE, largely comprises the renovated King Edward Hotel, a.k.a. the King Eddy. Once home to a legendary blues bar, the building’s main floor will once again host live acts. “The Eddy is really one of the most important parts of our collection,” says Julijana Capone, the centre’s publicity coordinator. That’s high praise, considering other highlights of the centre’s 2,000-plus piece collection include Randy Bachman’s 1959 Les Paul “American Woman” guitar, the piano Elton John played on his first five albums, and recording consoles used by the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Elvis Costello and Barbra Streisand. The consoles will be housed in the King Eddy’s recording studio spaces and made available to national and international artists. “This combination has never been gathered before,” says Capone. “I can only imagine the collaborations we’ll see.”