Woolsey Hall is the primary auditorium

Auditorium

An auditorium is a room built to enable an audience to hear and watch performances at venues such as theatres. For movie theaters, the number of auditoriums is expressed as the number of screens.- Etymology :...

 at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

. Woolsey Hall, which seats 2,695 people, was built as part of the Yale bicentennial celebration in 1901. The architects were Carrère and Hastings

Carrère and Hastings

Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère and Thomas Hastings , located in New York City, was one of the outstanding Beaux-Arts architecture firms in the United States. The partnership operated from 1885 until 1911, when Carrère was killed in an automobile accident...

, designers of the New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

.

The ornately decorated hall is home to the Newberry Memorial Organ

Newberry Memorial Organ

The Newberry Memorial Organ is among the largest and most notable "orchestral" organs in North America. Located in Woolsey Hall at Yale University, the organ contains 197 ranks and 166 stops comprising 12,617 pipes. It is one of the largest organs in the world....

, one of the most renowned orchestral organs

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

 in North America. This hall serves as the main performance venue for the New Haven Symphony Orchestra

New Haven Symphony Orchestra

The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in New Haven, Connecticut. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert in 1895 and is the fourth oldest orchestra in the United States.- History :...

, the Yale Bands, the Yale Symphony Orchestra

Yale Symphony Orchestra

The Yale Symphony Orchestra is a symphony orchestra at Yale University which performs in Yale's Woolsey Hall and tours internationally and domestically. The present Music Director is Toshiyuki Shimada.-History:...

, the Yale Philharmonia, the Yale Glee Club

Yale Glee Club

The Yale Glee Club is a mixed chorus of men and women, consisting of students of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1861, it is the third oldest collegiate chorus in the United States after the Harvard Glee Club, founded in 1858, and the University of Michigan Men's Glee Club,...

, and many smaller, student-run ensembles such as a cappella singing groups and the Davenport Pops Orchestra.

Woolsey Hall's murals represent the ideal of a classical education and include images on the nine muses and the goddess Athena. They reflect the age when Yale was an all-male college. The vestibule contains memorials to sons of Yale who lost their lives in the World Wars.

The hall's lack of draperies, carpeting and upholstered seats all contribute to its superior acoustics for musical performance, though the acoustics work far more in favor of the organ than for other sounds. Woolsey Hall predates any major studies within the field of acoustics, so aside from its large size, rectangular shape, hard surfaces and high vaulted ceiling, it has no peculiar architectural properties that contribute positively to its sound. Some student musicians at Yale, especially choral singers, resent Woolsey's muddy resonance, which easily obscures text and delicate timbres, and can make it difficult to hear oneself on stage.

One seat on the first balcony was reputedly made extra large to accommodate Yale's ultimate "big man on campus," trustee William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...

.