The park of Grafenegg castle is not only an outstanding example of a British style landscape garden covering 74 acres, but also the venue for the newly created Music Festival Grafenegg. For this purpose, it was equipped with an open-air stage designed as contemporary garden pavilion with 1.670 seats. The roof above the stage constitutes a landscape object in its own right. It is referred to as tower of clouds. Müller-BBM has incorporated the tower of clouds into the acoustic detail planning and was able to create optimal acoustic conditions on this open-air stage for all the different kinds of musical presentations, even those without electro-acoustic amplification.

Assuming a variable stage size for different orchestra and choir settings, the slope angle of the seat rows was optimised with regards to acoustics and some partial surfaces of the orchestra shell were designed and positioned in a way that ensures well directed sound propagation to the audience areas. The orchestras also benefit from these measurements since the musicians can hear each other with greater precision.

Not only Rudolf Buchbinder, Art Director of the Grafenegg Music Festival, but practically all the visitors attending the inaugural concert on June 22, were impressed with the open-air concert acoustics, which will make Grafenegg become an international top name in the classical music concert business.

"Medea" in the Amphitheatre Epidauros, Greece

On July 14, 2007, the opera "Medea" was performed in the historic amphitheatre of Epidaurus, in the context of the Athens-Epidaurus Festival for 8000 spectators, completely without electro-acoustic amplification. A special challenge in this project was that the orchestra was to be positioned behind the singers.

Therefore Müller-BBM was involved in an early stage to participate in the planning process for the opera setting in close collaboration with the stage designer. The emphasis of the acoustic planning was placed on the harmonic reconcilement between direct sound and initial reflections in order to achieve a cohesive overall impression at the seats arranged in a semi-circular rows. Special attention was also paid to the orchestra pit and the positioning of the stage setting as a whole, in order to achieve a good balance between singers, orchestra and choir.

By means of optimising the proportions of the stage setting with regard to acoustics, the materials used and the acoustically structured surfaces, it was possible to achieve a significant contribution in the impression of a defined room and of being surrounded by the music.