I’m the executive director of Early Music Seattle, the presenter of Seattle Baroque, mentioned in your July 13 article about the Performing Arts and Event Center in Federal Way.

I hear you about the difficulty of getting a new venue started, but I can tell you, while our concert was a financial failure, it was an artistic success because of the acoustic quality of your beautiful venue.

The sound is extraordinary, exceeding any Seattle venue for acoustic music in my opinion, and those of our professional musicians. We did our concert with the audience on the stage, but we listened from the house also. It was amazing. Classical/art music is a hard sell in our times, but know that you have the perfect space for it, with your warm, rich, clear acoustic.

I agree with the comment that the whole city needs to get behind a project like this, including this paper, which I contacted repeatedly and fruitlessly to preview our Seattle Baroque premiere, along with other local media. Other venue projects like this have failed when there was no community plan, no ongoing funding plan to promote performances, buy newspaper ads, hire quality groups, and bear a financial loss for several years. What about a second campaign to fund operations? Less sexy but necessary?

Turning to Spectra in an attempt to make the theater “pay” may seem financially necessary, but will likely be artistically unsatisfying, and won’t allow Federal Way to build its own artistic personality and respond to the interests of its local community. It seems telling that the Korean community event sold out. What other community groups could fill the space with their own events? Will Spectra allow ample dates for events of this type? And rentals for other organizations, like the one I work for?

I don’t mean to rant and dis the visionaries from the sidelines. It’s a huge job to begin a project like this, and it’s a laudable goal. It speaks well of the city that it invests in a place that brings its citizens together for shared experiences. Bravo to the brave souls that pushed for this, it’s truly a gem, and you made it. The challenge will be to fund operations, hopefully without selling artistic control to out-of-town for-profit interests.

Gus Denhard

Seattle