The Aulin Auditorium
Photo: Jan-Olav Wedin
At the top of Konserthuset Stockholm is the Aulin auditorium, a modern concert venue with historical roots. It is named after Tor Aulin, the violinist, conductor, composer and, not least, one of the orchestra’s founders.
Attik becomes Aulin
Up to 1993, it was known as the Attik auditorium and used primarily for rehearsals. In 1994 the newly renovated venue was reopened as the Aulin auditorium, in recognition of Tor Aulin. With capacity for 154 people, the auditorium is used mainly for seminars, lecturers and stage experimentation rather than regular concerts.
The area has dark blue walls in the foyer, with soft grey shades appearing in the auditorium itself. At the very top, along the ceiling, there are windows which allow the light to stream in over the oak stalls. Smart technology enables the gallery, with its blue seats, to be retracted into the rear wall, allowing a range of configurations in the auditorium.
Tor Aulin – composer, conductor and violinist
Taking pride of place at the front is a bust of Tor Aulin, one of the founders of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, by Carl Eldh. Tor Aulin was a versatile musical figure and highly prominent in the Swedish musical scene both as a composer, conductor and violinist.
On 21 October 1902 he conducted the very first concert performed by the Stockholm Concert Society, which later became the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. Together with his composer colleague Wilhelm Stenhammar and the director John May, Tor Aulin decided to start up an orchestra in Sweden’s capital. In the early 1900s there was only one professional orchestra in Stockholm: the Royal Court Orchestra at the Royal Swedish Opera.