An hour of calm | The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's Sanctuary Series returns

There are concerts you attend, and then there are concerts you surrender to. The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Sanctuary Series falls firmly into the second category, offering something increasingly rare: permission to simply be still.

This October, the series returns to Grainger Studio with Calm Seas, a sixty-minute program designed to wash over you like a gentle tide. Whether you choose to stretch out on a mat wrapped in your favourite blanket or settle into a seat, the intention is the same. Leave the outside world at the door and let the music do the rest.

Music that ebbs and flows

Conductor Ingrid Martin leads the orchestra through a carefully curated program inspired by the gentle rhythm of the sea. The works chosen speak to reflection, memory and the quiet spaces between thoughts.

Debussy features prominently, as one might expect from a program celebrating the ocean’s pull. La cathédrale engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral), orchestrated by Henri Büsser, conjures images of an ancient cathedral rising from the waves, its bells tolling through the mist. Clair de Lune, in André Caplet’s arrangement, transforms the beloved piano piece into something luminous and expansive.

The program opens with Adelaide composer Anne Cawrse Bartsch’s Hope, before moving through Johan Svendsen’s Norwegian Folk Melody and Fauré’s evocative Pelléas et Mélisande suite. Elgar’s Chanson de nuit brings nocturnal warmth, while Arvo Pärt’s Cantus in Memory of Benjamin Britten offers profound, resonant stillness.

The concert concludes with Lars-Erik Larsson’s En Vintersaga (A Winter’s Tale), a four-movement work that moves through siciliana, intermezzo, pastoral and epilogue with the quiet inevitability of seasons turning.

The Sanctuary Series experience

What sets Sanctuary Series concerts apart is their invitation to experience music differently. Without an interval, the program flows unbroken, allowing the audience to settle into a deeper state of listening. The intimate scale of Grainger Studio enhances this sense of immersion, placing you close enough to the orchestra to feel the music as much as hear it.

For those who choose the mat option, there’s something almost meditative about lying back and letting the sound move through you. Others prefer the more traditional seated experience, and both are equally valid. The point is that you have options, and the ASO trusts you to know what you need.

In a world that constantly demands our attention, an hour of intentional calm feels less like indulgence and more like necessity. The Sanctuary Series recognises this, creating space for pause, reflection and recharge.