Teatro Teresa Carreño

The Teatro Teresa Carreño in Caracas, also known as the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex, is named after the Venezuelan pianist and is considered the country's most important theatre. The impetus came in the 1970s from the violinist Pedro Antonio Ríos Reyna, who called for a hall for the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra; this grew into a multi-purpose complex by architects Tomás Lugo Marcano, Jesús Sandoval and Dietrich Kunckel. The 440-seat José Félix Ribas Hall opened in February 1976, followed by the 2,400-seat Ríos Reyna Hall and the rest of the complex on 19 April 1983. The concrete building, with massive columns and hexagonal roofs, contains works by Jesús Rafael Soto. Its resident companies are the opera chorus and the Teresa Carreño Ballet, led until 2002 by Vicente Nebrada. President Carlos Andrés Pérez was sworn in here in 1989.