Audium is the first theater of its kind, pioneering the exploration of space in music for over 50 years. The theater is constructed specifically for live sound movement and utilizing the entire environment as a compositional tool. The building consists of a foyer, sound labyrinth and main performance space with over 176 speakers in total. Listeners sitting in concentric circles are enveloped by speakers in sloping walls, a floating floor and a suspended ceiling. Compositions are performed live at each program by a performer who distributes sounds through a custom-designed console. Sounds are “sculpted” through their movement, direction, speed and intensity on multiple planes in space. Live performance of composed works gives a human, interactive element to Audium’s spatial electronic orchestra.

Audium has been exploring the ideas of aural immersion and live sound spatialization for decades. Its idea was born out of experimentation by Stan Shaff and Doug McEachern in the late 1950s with Anna Halprin’s dance troup and the now-historic San Francisco Tape Music Center. Audium went through multiple incarnations in its early years, from performances at the SF Museum of Art and SF State University to a fixed installation in San Francisco’s Richmond District for 3.5 years. It found a home at its current site, thanks to a series of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, in 1975. The theater has held weekly performances ever since (totaling over 4,300 performances and counting).