When will there be a real room dedicated to Music, promised for ten years in Toulouse?

Everyone agrees that the Halle aux Grains is a warm and friendly room for listening to concerts but unsuitable for the symphonic Music of the Orchester national du Capitole and the many other leading philharmonic groups that perform in Toulouse . Its acoustics do not allow all the musical colors of the orchestra to be reproduced, particularly the depth of the notes.

“The Halle aux Grains is a good room for rehearsals and for small chamber music or jazz groups but it does not have sufficient qualities to correctly reproduce the sound of a symphony orchestra,” laments a musician. “It does not allow the orchestra to flourish because its sound reverberation is poor. The sound is dry, constrained, it falls immediately and does not expand. It would take between 12 and 16 m³ per seat as in current philharmonies to have good acoustic conditions. We are far below at the Halle aux Grains. Raising the ceiling wouldn’t be enough, you’d have to push the walls.”

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Election promise

Moreover, during its renovation in 1989, to transform it into an “auditorium”, the Halle aux Grains even lost acoustic quality which became problematic for an orchestra of international level like the Capitole. It is for this reason in particular that in 2014, the various candidates in the municipal election included the construction of an auditorium in the list of their electoral promises. Elected mayor, Jean-Luc Moudenc even proposed the site of the former Saint-Michel prison before the project was abandoned.

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“I thought we were on the right track with the old Saint-Michel prison but when it came time to make it happen, the State which owns the place did not want to get involved with us,” regretted Jean- Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse and president of the Metropolis, faced with the expectations raised by obtaining the “Cities of Music” label, in October 2023. “It was a disappointment. I hope that a government will agree to review this question because the project is financially inconceivable without the State, the Region, the Department and the Metropolis unless a private initiative makes it possible to support the construction of a place designed for the Orchestra and for music lovers. We will then find the place. “.

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The place was even, for a time, imagined at Compans Caffarelli on the site of the Administrative City, leaving for Jolimont. But again, the land did not belong to the City, the idea was abandoned due to lack of agreement with the State. Today, the new problem that arises is financial. State allocations are melting like snow in the sun. “I remain convinced that we need an auditorium,” said the mayor a few days ago, during an assessment of ten years of culture in Toulouse. “150 million are necessary, which is not possible without public funding from the State and other communities.”

All that remains is to hope that the planets align in favor of the auditorium and that the city’s investment budget is less impacted by constraints than the operating budget. Subsidies to cultural associations could drop by up to 40% in 2025.