Favourite Venues for Concerts – The Orpheum

I was very fortunate to graduate high school and walk across the stage at The Orpheum. It was one of the most special occasions of my life and I’m going there again next week to watch the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra perform “Musically Speaking | Saint-Saëns’ Organ Symphony”.

In my previous post about Queen Elizabeth Theatre (read here). I mentioned that The Orpheum is now the permanent home of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. It is also part of the Vancouver Civic Theatres group alongside with Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the Vancouver Playhouse and the Annex.

The Orpheum has a longer history than Queen Elizabeth Theatre. The theatre was designed by Benjamin Marcus Priteca, a Scottish architect. It opened on November 8^th, 1927. Don’t worry about pulling out the calculator, I’ll do it for you. In about four more years from today, it will be 100 years since the opening of The Orpheum. However, the theatre was closed on November 23^rd, 1975, for renovation and restoration and reopened again two years later, April 2^nd, 1977. In 1979, The Orpheum was designated by the federal Minister as a National Historic Site of Canada, given the official name “Orpheum Theatre National Historic Site of Canada”.

Did you know that the big vertical neon sign outside the venue was installed in the 1970s?

It cost around 1.25 million dollars to construct, and the capacity is around three thousand seats. I remembered when I was playing the piano for my high school graduation, we almost filled the entire theatre. I had a rough estimate that we would have a little over two thousand people attending that year’s ceremony. I started it off with our national anthem “O Canada” and then our choir presented “Hercules: Go The Distance” and “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson.

For me, it was my second time there, because I also played the piano for the graduates the year before my own graduation. Yes, that also meant I sat through two full graduation ceremonies watching people walk across the stage.

If you were a student from Vancouver or anywhere in the lower mainland, where did your school choose to host their graduation ceremony? Did you also have it at The Orpheum? Did you ever watch a concert inside The Orpheum?

Located on Smithe Street in downtown Vancouver, The Orpheum is a place that I encourage you to go and visit one day. It is such an interesting place to visit and you will not regret it.