National Music Centre, Music museum and performance center in East Village, Calgary, Canada

The National Music Centre, branded Studio Bell, occupies a 60,000-square-foot building at 850 4th Street S.E. in Calgary's East Village, designed by Portland architect Brad Cloepfil. Its interior is clad in 226,000 custom glazed terracotta tiles made in Germany and fired in the Netherlands. Inside are galleries, a 300-seat performance hall, three control rooms and three live rooms of recording space, and the rebuilt King Edward Hotel.

The collection began with the Carthy Organ installed in Calgary's Jack Singer Concert Hall in 1987, which led to the Chinook Keyboard Centre in 1996 and the Cantos Music Foundation in 2003. It became the National Music Centre in 2012. Studio Bell opened on July 1, 2016, after construction started in 2013 and cost $191 million.

The center draws visitors interested in Canadian musical history and its artists through displays that showcase regional music styles. Collections reveal how musicians from this country have shaped the broader music world.

Studio Bell stands at 850 4th Street S.E. in Downtown East Village, a short walk from the Calgary Zoo and the river pathways. The building is served by CTrain and bus routes along 4th Street; parking is available in the East Village area. The 300-seat performance hall, the CKUA broadcast facilities and the rebuilt King Edward Hotel live venue are all inside the same complex, so check which spaces are open or hosting events on the day you visit.

Studio Bell's facade is clad in 226,000 custom glazed terracotta tiles made in Germany and fired in the Netherlands. Inside, the collection keeps the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio and TONTO, the first and largest multitimbral polyphonic analog synthesizer ever built. The centre also holds one of Elton John's pianos and a rare Trident A-Range mixing console.