On the Terrace
11am - 4pm
Sunday 1 Nov 2026
A free mini-festival of pop-up chamber music concerts in the iconic galleries, museums and creative spaces on North Terrace
Celebrating 10 years
Since 2016, On the Terrace has grown into a much-loved showcase of South Australian chamber music, and a day of sharing and connection between artists and audiences. To mark ten years, Chamber Music Adelaide has commissioned From Dawn To Dusk from composer Hilary Kleinig. The work traces a single day's journey from the Adelaide Hills through the city to the sea, following the path of Karrawirra Parri (the River Torrens). It ends in a finale that unites two ensembles with inclusive choir Poco Tutti at 3:40pm in the Art Gallery's Elder Wing. Founding ensembles return alongside new voices in a program full of world premieres and new Australian works, as well as treasures from the past.
What to expect
Wander between venues at your own pace and drop in on short performances, around 15 minutes each, set among gallery artworks, museum exhibits and library spaces. All concerts are free and suitable for all ages. [No bookings required.]
Celebrate and support
On The Terrace is a free event. If you’d like to help keep events like this accessible, we gratefully welcome your contribution.
COMMISSION
From Dawn To Dusk
by Hilary Kleinig
Follow the journey: Art Gallery of South Australia, Elder Wing
11:00am & 12:00pm: From Dawn (Strings)
11:20am & 2:00pm: To Dusk (Wind & Percussion)
3:40pm: From Dawn to Dusk Finale, bringing the two ensembles and Poco Tutti together
To celebrate ten years of On the Terrace, Chamber Music Adelaide has commissioned a major new work from composer Hilary Kleinig, a musical journey that unfolds across the day and brings together distinct voices in a shared finale.
Inspired by the journey of Karrawirra Parri (the River Torrens), From Dawn to Dusk follows a path from the Adelaide Hills, through the city and towards the sea. Water flows through the work as a symbol of renewal, movement and connection.
The commission unfolds in three parts. Earlier in the day, two ensembles - strings, and wind & percussion - each perform their own standalone part of the new work, within a specially curated program of chamber music. Each performance offers a different musical world, with its own sounds, voices and perspective.
As the day draws to a close, the two ensembles come together with inclusive choir Poco Tutti for the final part of From Dawn to Dusk. Musical ideas heard earlier in the day return, transformed and reimagined, as the three groups gather in one shared performance.
You can experience each performance on its own or follow the whole journey and hear how the music changes as the day unfolds.
Commissioned for On the Terrace's 10th anniversary.
Photography: Sam Oster
About the Composer
Hilary Kleinig is a Tarntanya/Adelaide-based cellist, composer, creative producer and educator whose artistic practice centres on care, collaboration and connection, with people, place and planet. For over 20 years she was cellist and Artistic Director of the award-winning Zephyr Quartet, and her compositions have been commissioned and performed by ensembles including the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Chamber Singers, often heard on ABC Classic. A passionate collaborator, Hilary is Co-Director of Connecting the Dots in Music, using music to create community-led projects for positive social impact.
Image Credit: Tourism Australia / South Australian Tourism Commission
PREMIERE
Sing Sanctus
Final movement of Leviathan by Jodie O'Regan
Sally-Anne Russell, Clara Cutri and Adelaide Baroque
Art Gallery of South Australia, Elder Wing
12:40pm, 1:20pm & 2:40pm
Jodie O'Regan, Performed by Sally-Anne Russell, Clara Cutri and Adelaide Baroque
Jodie O'Regan's Leviathan traces South Australia's whaling history, from the near destruction of whales in Encounter Bay to their return to a protected sanctuary. In its final movement, Sing Sanctus, the story moves into the uneasy present.
The work is inspired by the journey of a mother whale, returning to Encounter Bay with her calf, moving through water affected by algal bloom. In nurseries such as Encounter Bay, mother whales have a particular, soft call for their babies: they literally sing lullabies.
Mezzo-soprano Sally-Anne Russell and young soprano Clara Cutri evoke Sanctus as the call 'home' reaching the whales and mother and calf, the experience of the journey through the troubled waters, and their voices creating a tender lullaby, setting Sara Teasdale's tender, intimate poem Old Tunes, together with the strings of Adelaide Baroque.
After a century-long journey from destruction to renewal, Leviathan arrives at a moment when that hope is once again fragile: a lullaby for the whales, the ocean and the people who live beside it.
Sally-Anne Russell (mezzo-soprano), Clara Cutri (soprano) and Adelaide Baroque (Ben Dollman, violin; Alison Rayner, violin; Heidi von Bernewitz, viola; Thomas Marlin, cello; Rob Nairn, double bass)
Photography: Ali Lamei
Photography: Nick Forde
Image supplied by Nexus Arts Orchestra
Jack Overall with Nexus Arts Orchestra
Letters from Home
State Library of South Australia, Treasures Wall
1:00pm & 2:00pm
The stories of South Australia are many and varied, carried through generations, across borders and between cultures. In the State Library's Treasures Wall, they sit side by side, revealing the people, journeys and traditions that have helped shape our state.
Performed among these treasures, Jack Overall's music brings together different musical histories, cultures and voices in a shared act of creation.
Monica Myung (cello), Maryam Rahmani (santur), Zhao Liang (guzheng), Jacob Plooj (violin), Gustavo Quintino (bass), Jenny Hu (flute), David Dai (erhu), Alain Valodze (guitars)
Presented in partnership with Nexus Arts.
Photography: Claudio Raschella (Right)
CASM x 4EPQ
12.00pm, 2.00pm, 3.40pm
Art Gallery of South Australia, Galleries 8-11
11:00am, 12:00pm & 2:20pm
Emerging singer-songwriters from the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) join forces with string quartet 4EPQ for a new collaboration, developed through Chamber Music Adelaide's Chamber Seeds program and facilitated by composer Connor Fogarty. Original songs meet the rich textures of a string quartet, bringing together contemporary songwriting and chamber music in a set shaped by the artists themselves.
Performed among the works of James Tylor's Turrangka...in the shadows, a survey of the Kaurna and Te Arawa artist's photography and cultural practice.
Bedlam Rigney, Caitlyn Walker, Woonun Willoughby with string quartet 4EPQ
Presented in partnership with CASM, Adelaide University
Image supplied by Soundstream
Soundstream
Duo Kosma
Art Gallery of South Australia, Elder Wing
12:20pm & 3:00pm
Soundstream presents Duo Kosma, established in 2025 as a vehicle for collaborative experimental music. Gabriella Smart plays electric cristal with David Kotlowy on bespoke microtonal electric guitar and electronics. An exploration of sound at the edge.
Gabriella Smart (electric cristal), David Kotlowy (microtonal electric guitar, electronics)
Photography: Kate Dyer, Urban Safari Photography
Fiona McArdle
Australian Art Song by Women Composers
State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Chamber
12:40pm & 2:40pm
Fiona McArdle presents a program drawn from her PhD research at the Elder Conservatorium into art song by Australian women composers, music revealing the extraordinary, still under-recognised contribution women are making to Australian classical music today. The set features Margaret Sutherland's Midnight and The Twins, Elena Kats-Chernin's Late Spring, and Sandra Milliken's Lichen, Moss, Fungus and Rainforest. A graduate of the Elder Conservatorium, Fiona has since studied in Boston, made her opera debut in London, and now performs regularly with State Opera South Australia and the Adelaide Festival.
Fiona McArdle (mezzo-soprano), Hana Hart (piano)
Photography: Andrew Beveridge (Right)
Magpie Artsong
“Why do you lie dreaming?”
State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Chamber
1:20pm & 3:00pm
Baritone Macintyre Howie-Reeves and pianist Hana Hart bring a rich exploration of love's unfolding across a single day — from dawn to starlight — through song by Mahler, Heggie, Vaughan Williams, Korngold, Debussy and Alma Mahler. Each piece captures a different stage of human connection, with the natural world mirroring our deepest emotions.
Macintyre Howie-Reeves (baritone), Hana Hart (piano)
Photography: Claudio Raschella
Poco Tutti
Songs of Social Justice
SA Museum, Level 3 Australian Polar Collections
2:40pm
(plus the Commission Finale, 3:40pm, Art Gallery of South Australia, Elder Wing)
Poco Tutti is Tutti Arts' smaller choir of talented disabled and non-disabled singers, a choir that goes to the heart of our humanity, our sense of community, and our souls. A former headline act at the Desert Song Festival in Alice Springs, Poco Tutti brings songs of social justice to On the Terrace, including renditions of Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi and Guy Sebastian's Get Along, ahead of joining the 10th anniversary commission's finale later in the day.
Photography: Sam Oster (Right)
Kegelstatt Ensemble with Cheryl Pickering
Unearthing hidden gems
SA Museum, Level 3 Australian Polar Collections
11:00am, 11:40am & 1:40pm
Kegelstatt Ensemble brings its 20-year history of uncovering hidden gems of chamber music, written for unusual and unexpected combinations of instruments, to the South Australian Museum's own collection of gems and minerals. Mezzo-soprano Cheryl Pickering joins the ensemble to perform a movement from Hindemith's Des Todes Tod, alongside Irish Songs by Rebecca Clarke. The two vocal works will be linked by an improvisation for viola and violin.
Anna Webb (viola), Anna Freer (violin), Cheryl Pickering (mezzo-soprano)
Image supplied by Artist
Opal Guitar Quartet
Iridescence & Sketches of Japan
Art Gallery of South Australia, Gallery 6
11:40am, 2:20pm & 3:20pm
Christopher Everest's Iridescence and Charli Holibeck's Sketches of Japan present vivid, colourful sonic landscapes that mirror the shifting light and palettes of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. Iridescence evokes the shimmering play of colour found in opals and natural light, while Sketches of Japan moves through contrasting scenes of bold texture and delicate detail: together, two Australian works that invite audiences to experience music as a form of painting.
Dylan Boller, Megan Robson, Caleb Lavery-Brook, James Rawley
Images supplied by Artists
Cornucopia (Horn Trio)
Bach Dances & Chorales
Rundle Mall: 11:20am & 1:20pm;
SA Museum Lawns: 2:20pm
Emma Gregan, Philip Paine, Sam Peng
A little pocket of calm amid the festival bustle. Cornucopia brings a selection of dances and chorales from Bach's Jesu, Meine Freude, English Suites and French Suites, arranged for horn trio, graceful, lilting music for a quiet moment in the city.
Photography: Claudio Raschella
4EPQ Family
A Journey of Discovery
Art Gallery of South Australia, Gallery 6: 1:00pm & 1:40pm;
State Library of South Australia, Little Library: 3:40pm
Emma Perkins (violin), Belinda Gehlert (violin), Linda Garrett (viola), Gemma Phillips (cello)
Let 4EPQ take you on a journey of discovery through string quartet music inspired by dance and movement, with a bite-sized chamber music concert especially for families. With a program made to make you move, you'll hear waltzes, tangos, folk dances, and some of the catchiest classical melodies ever written, including pieces familiar to young audiences from their favourite children's television programs. There's plenty here for the grown-ups too. Come ready to listen and ready to join in!
Photography: Photos by Jamois
EMERGING CHAMBER MUSICIANS
Recitals Australia
Recitals Australia brings four chamber combinations to On the Terrace, featuring some of South Australia's most promising emerging musicians as they develop their careers on the concert stage. From intimate duos to the rich textures of a wind and piano trio, the program showcases the versatility of these young performers across the breadth of chamber music, with musicians who continue to be recognised through prizes, fellowships, orchestral traineeships and national performance opportunities.
Photography: Photos by Jamois
Patrick Moorehouse (oboe), Chiara Panetta (bassoon), Maria Tynan (piano)
State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Chamber
2:20pm & 3:20pm
Poulenc: Trio pour hautbois, basson et piano, FP 43
Photography: Supplied / Photos by Jamois (Right)
Chiara Panetta (bassoon), Jade Elsdon (oboe)
SA Museum, Level 3 Australian Polar Collections
12:20pm & 1:20pm
Jolivet: Sonatina for oboe and bassoon
Photography: Photos by Jamois
Teresa Chen (voice)
State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Chamber
12:20pm & 1:40pm
Mozart: Oiseaux, si tous les ans and Dans un bois solitaire
Fauré: Les berceaux and Après un rêve
Strauss: Zueignung, Die Nacht, and Allerseelen
Photography: Photos by Jamois
Nicholas Miceli (violin), Vincenzo Panetta (trombone)
SA Museum, Level 3 Australian Polar Collections
11:20am & 3:00pm
Schubert: Lieder, selections (arr. C.G. Wolff)
Bartók: 44 Duos for Two Violins, Sz. 98, selections (arr. Hugo Bouma)
Chamber music students from the Elder Conservatorium present their own curated program in Elder Hall
Thank you
Thank you to the musicians who bring On the Terrace to life each year, to our staff and Board past and present, and to our venue and operations partners. We are also grateful to our funders, Create SA and the City of Adelaide, and to our generous donors for their support over the past decade.
Supported by
Event Partners
Previous On the Terrace Programs
