On meeting Aercoustics Principal John O’Keefe people are struck by his intense personal and professional interest in live musical performance. As a bass singer and pit musician, John knows how important the acoustic and aesthetic properties of a performance space are. For both performer and audience. Regarded as one of Canada’s foremost architectural acousticians, no one around knows how to bring out the sonic best in a theatre space the way John does, whether on an intimate or grand scale. As an engineer, John is responsible for the acoustic design of many of Canada’s finest performing arts centres, such as the ornate beloved Vancouver Orpheum (home of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and winner of the 1996 CCE Award of Merit); the Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat, Alberta, which occasioned the firm’s 2007 Schreyer Award for engineering; the 2,000-seat Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto, the first privately-built theatre in North America in over 30 years; and one of the quietest opera houses in the world, Toronto’s new 2,000-seat, five-tier Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts.

John is excited about the explosion in scientific and aesthetic understanding of acoustics during the past few decades. To that end, he teaches at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Design and presents papers throughout the world.