Photos: First Look at SONIC SPHERE at The Shed

Sonic Sphere, a revolutionary new multisensory spherical concert hall suspended in The Shed’s soaring McCourt, is now open through July 30, 2023. The experience features listening sessions created and curated by Carl Craig, Yaeji, Steve Reich, and The xx, with live performances by yunè pinku, UNIIQU3, and Igor Levit with visual artist Rirkrit Tiravanij.

Check out photos below!

Experience music in all its dimensions with Sonic Sphere, a vast, 65-foot-diameter spherical concert hall suspended in air in The Shed's soaring, 115-foot-tall McCourt. This revolutionary new architectural space features immersive, 3-D sound and light explorations of music by boundary-pushing artists.

Going into the sphere by staircase, audiences are surrounded by more than 100 speakers that move sound above, below, through, and around your body. Sound and light waves are sculpted into spatialized, temporal architectures. Together, they create hyperreal and deeply multisensory, shared experiences.

Multiple 45-minute live and/or recorded sets will be offered each day including:

Listening sessions of complete recorded albums of The xx's essential, self-titled debut album and Steve Reich's groundbreaking Music for 18 Musicians

A playlist tracing one branch of electronic music's family tree by DJs Carl Craig and a new compilation mix by Yaeji

Live performances by yunè pinku on June 14 and 16; UNIIQU3 on June 23 and 24; and Igor Levit on June 30 and July 1 performing Morton Feldman's Palais de Mari in collaboration with visual artist Rirkrit Tiravanija
 

The Sonic Sphere team works through rapid iteration. Conceived in the tradition of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kugelauditorium, a nearly spherical concert hall built for the 1970 World Expo in Osaka, the sphere at The Shed is the 11th and most advanced sphere so far, after iterations of increasing size and technical sophistication, beginning at Chateau du Feÿ's creative commune, and appearing since in London, Mexico, at Black Rock City, and in Miami.

Sonic Sphere is the creation of artists Ed Cooke, Merijn Royaards, and Nicholas Christie, alongside the Sonic Sphere team. The artist curation for Sonic Sphere at The Shed is led by Alex Poots, Artistic Director.

Tickets are on sale now at theshed.org.