I have been working closely with
Paul Scarbrough on the Kennedy
Center Concert Hall design…
What is truly remarkable is the
rapport he has developed with
the musicians of the National
Symphony Orchestra. You have
the sense that he really
understands them.

Larry Barr, AIA
Project Director
John F. Kennedy Center
Concert Hall
Renovation & Restoration

Paul Scarbrough is an acoustical design professional with over 23 years of experience. Most recently he led the Akustiks team in designing the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the home of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and a hall that has been called "one of the best auditoriums built in a century." In the fall of 2007, he helped inaugurate the 250-seat jewel-box recital hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the 350-seat Suzanne Roberts Theater for the Philadelphia Theatre Company.

In 2006, Paul and his partners at Akustiks were selected to design the acoustics for the new Smith Center for the Performing Arts in Las Vegas. This complex will house a 2000-seat multi-use concert theater, a 650-seat community theater, a cabaret theater and a studio theater/rehearsal hall. Prior to forming Akustiks in 2001, he was a principal at Jaffe Holden Scarbrough Acoustics. During his 17 years with JHS, he was the principal designer for the renovations to Severance Hall for the Cleveland Orchestra, the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center and the New Amsterdam and New Victory theatres on Broadway. His other project credits include the Oklahoma City Civic Center Music Hall and the Whitaker Center for Arts and Sciences in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Paul has worked with many leading American orchestras, including those in Cleveland, New York, Nashville, Los Angeles, and Indianapolis. He has forged successful working relationships with many leading architects, including Rafael Viñoly Architects, Hodgetts+Fung, Polshek Partnership Architects, Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, David M. Schwarz, and H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture.

Paul has focused attention on several specialized areas within acoustics, including extensive studies to better understand how musicians hear on stage. His work resulted in advances that were incorporated into the designs for Severance Hall and the Kennedy Center Concert Hall. He also designed new accommodations for the existing pipe organs in both of these venues. Most recently, he has extended this work by designing a new stage for the Indianapolis Symphony at the Hilbert Circle Theater.

Paul studied architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He served on the faculty of the 1999 Tanglewood Summer Institute of the Acoustical Society and has been a guest critic and lecturer at the Yale University School of Architecture. He holds memberships in the Acoustical Society of America, Britain's Institute of Acoustics, the United States Institute of Theater Technology and the International Society for the Performing Arts.