Edinburgh’s upcoming £162m Dunard Centre has welcomed its first royal visitor as excavation crews begin digging out the concert hall’s two-storey basement behind St Andrew Square.
The Duke of Kent toured the construction site last week to celebrate a new artistic partnership between the Edinburgh venue and London’s historic Wigmore Hall, where he has served as patron for a decade.
The visit occurred just days after Balfour Beatty engineers completed the building’s structural piling in June, clearing the way for 36,000 cubic metres of earth to be removed from the site.
The landmark partnership, announced in March to mark Wigmore Hall’s 125th anniversary, will see director John Gilhooly chair a new artistic advisory committee in Edinburgh to manage joint commissions and performer exchanges.
During his visit, the Duke met with representatives from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, which will make the Dunard Centre its permanent home, and the Edinburgh International Festival, which will use the 1,000-seat auditorium as a principal performance space from 2029.
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland students Hamish Martindale and Anja Maclennan provided a short musical welcome on the pipes and guitar.
Jo Buckley, Chief Executive of the Dunard Centre, said the design of the auditorium will offer an exceptionally intimate experience for local audiences.
Jo said: “Together, we took a moment to reflect on our mutual commitment to world-class programming and to the warm welcome afforded to our audiences by the intimacy of our design. This venue will truly be a Hall for All.”
John added that the collaboration represents an exciting opportunity to connect two of the UK’s premier classical music institutions.
