Eckhard Kahle, PhD
Acoustician
Founder of Kahle Acoustics
Eckhard Kahle playing viola.
Acoustical Consulting Experience
In 1995, Dr. Kahle joined the acoustic consulting firm Artec Consultants Inc, based in New York, one of the world leaders in the acoustic design of performance spaces. He made important contributions to a number of Artec projects, including the Culture and Congress Center (KKL), Luzern, and the Salle du Métropole, Lausanne, Switzerland; the Auditorium de Dijon, France; the Regional Performing Arts Center, Philadelphia; the Orange County Performing Arts Center, California; the SangNam Hall, LG Arts Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea; the Flemish Theatre (KVS), the Maison de la Radio, and the Théâtre royal de La Monnaie, Brussels, Belgium.
Kahle Acoustics Reference Projects
In 2001, Eckhard Kahle founded his own company, Kahle Acoustics srl, in Brussels. Clients of the firm include, amongst others, the Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis (Jean Nouvel, architect), the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (Renzo Piano, architect), USA; the Curve, Leicester Theatre and Performing Arts Centre (Rafael Viñoly, architect), UK; the Victoria Hall, Geneva, Switzerland; the Singapore Conservatory of Music; the Association Philharmonie de Paris (acoustician to the owner), France; the City of Stavanger, Norway; and the City of Jinan for the Shandong Grand Theater (Late Paul Andreu, architect), China.
Eckhard completed the 2 highest European concert halls in St Christoph am Arlberg and in Andermatt (respectively in 2015 & 2019), along with the construction of the Axel Springer Media centre Berlin designed by OMA, with the new concert hall project of the City of Nuremberg in Germany, and the construction of the national scene La Comédie, Clermont-Ferrand.
In Oslo, he works on the rehabilitation of Nationaltheatret, and in Trondheim on the new Olavshallen concert hall.
In Switzerland, Eckhard was the lead acoustician on the Casino Bern (2019), and still is working on the Zürich Congress Hall, the Geneva Congress Hall (CICG) and on the construction of the Geneva Music Conservatory. In Moscow, Eckhard supervises the acoustic mission for the new dedicated space to contemporary art, GES_2. Overall, Eckhard supervises, when need be, every on-going project at Kahle Acoustics.
Education
Eckhard Kahle was born in Germany in 1963. After obtaining a Vordiplom at the University of Bonn, he continued his studies of physics at Clare College, Cambridge (England), receiving a Master of Philosophy in Physics for his work in modelling the microstructure of wood used by violinmakers when creating the front plates of stringed instruments. Dr. Kahle then returned to Germany where he completed his physics degree, with a major in acoustics, at the University in Aachen. He then joined the room acoustics group at IRCAM — Pierre Boulez' Institute for Research in Music and Acoustics — in Paris (France), working on an objective model of the perception of acoustical quality in concert halls, opera houses, and recital halls. This model was validated with his doctoral thesis, based on a series of extensive objective acoustical measurements and subjective listening tests in several European facilities for music performance. His thesis jury included some of the world's most accomplished researchers in the field of room acoustics.
Musical Experience
In parallel, Eckhard Kahle has pursued a professional career as viola player. He was a long-standing member of the European Community Youth Orchestra, holding the position of principal viola at the time of his departure. In this capacity, he has performed with outstanding conductors and musicians such as Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Radu Lupu, and Leonard Bernstein. He also performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the direction of Roger Norrington and Vladimir Jurowski and held the position of viola soloist for the Ensemble baroque de Limoges, led by the cellist Christophe Coin, while pursuing his studies in France.
Publications and Teaching
Since 1988, Eckhard Kahle publishes a large number of scientific articles in journals and seminars proceedings in France, Belgium Switzerland, Germany, England and North America. He is regularly invited to give lectures and Master classes. He is Professor at the National Music Conservatory in Karlsruhe, Germany.
