Modern makeover for Scotland’s oldest concert hall unveiled

0 St Cecilia’s Hall curator Sarah Deters plays an orchestral hand horn in the revamped venue It has been only been home to a handful of shows every year – despite being Scotland’s oldest concert hall and once playing host to Hollywood superstar Grace Kelly.

Now an 18th century venue off the Royal Mile is set for a new lease off life after getting a makeover worth £6.5 million.

Nearly 500 historic musical instruments spanning more than four centuries have been brought together for the first time in an expanded museum created at St Cecilia’s Hall.

It will be opened up five days a week for the first time, instead of the six hours before the revamp was carried out by Edinburgh University, which bought the building in 1959 to accommodate new additions to its instrument collection.

Its £6.5m project has transformed the little-known venue, one of the oldest concert halls anywhere in Europe, where Kelly came out of retirement during the Edinburgh Festival in 1976.

The project, which has been backed by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Edinburgh World Heritage trust, has seen storage spaces and offices turned into galleries to help bring the collection – said to be one of the most important in the world – under one roof for the first time.

Raised seating has been installed in the new-look ovalshaped auditorium, which has a capacity of 200, to make the venue more comfortable and offer better lines of sight. An entrance has been created on Niddry Street to help attract visitors to the Old Town into the venue.

Dating back to 1763, it was commissioned by the Edinburgh Musical Society and has also been used as a school, masonic lodge and dance hall.

Kelly had not performed in public for 20 years following her marriage to the Prince of Monaco when she performed poetry at the venue to commemorate America’s bicentennial.

The Scotsman critic Allenwrightwrote:“grace Kelly was escorted by two gents on to the stage in tuxedos. She was wrapped in a gown of radiant coral and was looking more beautiful than ever.”

Jacky Macbeath, the university’s head of museums, said: “The building is a triumph that is both sympathetic to its Georgian heritage and equipped for a modern audience.

“The museum has been meticulously curated to showcase our exquisite instruments and teach people about their significance. Visitors will be immersed in the sounds of our instruments, as students and experts will play them throughout the day.”