Ready for the island?

The place has something magical about it. Rheinau is located in the Zurich wine country near Schaffhausen, directly on the Rhine and on the border with Germany. You drive through the pretty village with its old timber-framed houses down to the monastery square on the Rhine: from here, a bridge leads to the island with the massive monastery complex.
Major construction work is currently underway on two three-storey wings. The rooms have been empty since 2000, and ideas for their use - training center, museum, boarding school, resort hotel - failed due to a lack of investors. Now a music hotel with 16 modern rehearsal rooms of various sizes, plus 63 guest rooms and a kitchen with dining room for musicians who want to retreat here for a few days of intensive rehearsals with their choir, orchestra or ensemble is being built in this magnificent listed building. This is made possible by the Swiss Music Island Rheinau Foundation. It was founded in 2009 by Christoph Blocher and is investing 2.7 million francs. The conversion cost the Canton of Zurich 28.5 million.

Sound
The view of the Rhine through the windows is fantastic, the monastery complex is built directly on the water. You are standing in a monastery cell, which has now been converted into a beautifully designed hotel room with a wet room, and the river flows mightily past: The motto here is to pause, take a deep breath, the peace is intense in this seclusion, the light, the cultural landscape and nature are unique.

But how quiet is it here when several ensembles want to rehearse at the same time? "We called in an acoustician: Eckhard Kahle from Karlsruhe, who also worked on the KKL Luzern," explains Patrick McEvily from the Musikinsel Foundation during our tour. "On the one hand, the rooms have to be so well insulated that the ensembles don't disturb each other. For this reason, it is not possible to rehearse amplified music here. On the other hand, the acoustics in the historic hall have to be good for music. To achieve this, we have had fixed and mobile acoustic elements made that can be attached to the wall."

Music hall