Curtain up on ASO’s Beethoven Festival, but orchestra abandons stage for local railway station.

Commuters at Adelaide Railway Station might get a surprise next Friday when they hear the sound of music amidst the peak hour ruckus. It’s all part of Conduct Your Orchestra, an event that will see musicians from the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra exchange the concert hall platform for the railway platform. They’re also leaving their usual conductor behind, instead, allowing passersby to try their hand with the baton.

“The inspiration is the ‘flash mob’ idea, but it’s sort of more than that,” said Simon Lord, Director of Artistic Planning. “It’s to do with engagement and the community, and de-mystifying what a symphony orchestra is. The players are put into an unexpected physical space, which allows people to have direct access and to stand up and engage.”

Flash mob is the popular term for a group of people who suddenly appear in a public space to perform, then quickly disperse. It first came to prominence in the early 2000s when a horde of people converged on Macy’s department store in New York. While the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s event won’t have that same air of spontaneity, Lord said that the...