BY LILY BRYANT
A warm bath. An evening walk. A home-cooked meal. Calmness and comfort and safety. The word “sanctuary” conjures up any number of different images for different people. For Melbourne Recital Centre’s programming manager El Chantry, sanctuary is spending time with music.
“It’s always putting music on and walking around the block, headphones in. That’s the best way to escape anything, and to close out the noise,” El says.
In the upcoming Sanctuary events at Melbourne Recital Centre, music is used to do precisely that: offer audiences space to reflect and recharge, to block out the static and find a sense of peace.
Across two days, Melbourne Recital Centre will present some incredible homegrown talent across three separate events, as they perform music that soothes, nurtures, and comforts. Audience of One is a booked-out series of one-on-one concerts with a mystery solo performer. In Ancestral Redux, James Howard shares his personal story of culture and identity. And Sanctuary Suite is a mammoth lineup of diverse artists presenting their ethereal, meditative work.
“It’s a concept that we’ve been thinking about for a long time – this way that we can use music to be recharged and reflect, and take time out, and kind of nurture ourselves,” El says (pictured below).
While the backdrop of a dreary Melbourne winter makes this musical celebration of warmth and comfort even more enticing, this time of year is significant to what Sanctuary hopes to offer its audiences.
“I think it’s that idea of hibernation,” El says. “We need to take some time during the year to really recharge, and winter provides us that opportunity.”
Particularly unique is the addition of one-on-one concerts, a piece of pandemic ingenuity that allows performers to continue practising their art, and listeners to receive a moving, intimate insight into artistic process. Even in a post-capacity-restriction world, these special concerts endure for their ability to create a spellbinding experience for performer and listener. They were quickly booked out.
“It’s just a really powerful experience to be in a room with one other person, a stranger, who is creating in front of you and for you. It’s really powerful for the artist, and it’s really powerful for the audience member.”
Sanctuary also offers audiences the option to choose your own adventure, with its Sanctuary Suite operating more like a festival (minus the sweaty crowds and portable toilets). Listeners can choose what they’d like to hear, when they’d like to hear it, and even whether they’d like to sit on a seat or the floor. This flexible approach to concert structure is something frequent orchestra- or opera-goers might not be familiar with. For those not so well-versed in the conventions of Western art music, it allows not only a more relaxed experience for audiences, but a more accessible one.
“We want people to feel relaxed, right?” El says.
“We want people to feel comfortable, and some of those experiences in a more formal concert experience can hinder that sometimes. Like, ‘here’s your seat, sit here, be still, don’t clap’, you know? Those slight rules can sometimes hinder that full experience of losing yourself completely to the music.”
Regardless of whether you’re a diehard classical fan or a lover of contemporary pop, Sanctuary offers a judgement-free zone in which a varied lineup of artists will bestow upon you those feelings of comfort and peace.
“We do have the names like Mindy Meng Wang and Paul Grabowsky, who are familiar names to our classical audience, but then we’ve got Lady Lash who works more in almost the hip-hop space, and has a younger audience appeal,” El explains.
“We wanted to still find that same audience experience but from different artists.”
It’s easy to see the value in cultivating a feeling of sanctuary after such a long period of turmoil and uncertainty. But to create a musical sanctuary through live performance, a medium that struggled dearly throughout the pandemic, feels particularly poignant.
To have creative, accessible spaces that allow for healing and reflection has never been more important, or as El puts it, “I think we all need a big warm hug”.
Sanctuary Suite begins at 2pm July 9, and continues through the afternoon in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, Melbourne Recital Centre.
Explore the full Sanctuary series online, including James Howard’s event Ancestral Redux on July 8.
First Nations audiences can access free tickets to this event – simply use the promo code FIRSTNATIONS when booking.
READ NEXT: Composer-performers Mindy Meng Wang and Nat Bartsch talk about Sanctuary’s support for local music.
Images supplied. Featured image by Jackson Grant.
