Melbourne Recital Centre

Melbourne Recital Centre in Southbank is a live-music venue centred on the 1,000-seat Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, with the flexible 140-seat Primrose Potter Salon alongside it. Its defining feature is engineering aimed squarely at listening: the main hall sits on 38 steel spring bearings inside a 250mm concrete shell, separating performances from the traffic and trams outside. The result is a large seated room designed to keep an acoustic recital feeling close-up.

Built for a new kind of listening room

The Centre opened in February 2009 as part of the Melbourne Recital Centre and Melbourne Theatre Company Southbank Theatre development. The Victorian State Government backed the project; Ashton Raggatt McDougall designed the building, while Arup handled acoustic and theatre consulting. Its opening answered a push for a purpose-built Melbourne home for chamber and classical performance, and the main room took its name from founding patron Dame Elisabeth Murdoch.

The first public concert in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, on 8 February 2009, paired Schubert with the world premiere of Peter Sculthorpe’s Song of the Yarra. Gidon Kremer performed as violin soloist in the commissioned opening work. That inaugural program established a useful shorthand for the venue’s identity: formal recital-hall conditions, Australian composition, and international-calibre players on the same stage. In 2018, a gift from Lady Primrose Potter supported the Centre’s next phase and led to the Salon carrying her name.

The room today

Melbourne Recital Centre presents its own artistic program and hosts outside concerts and events. Classical, chamber and orchestral music remain central, while the calendar also makes room for jazz, folk, pop, rock, electronic, cabaret and music from across global traditions. Elisabeth Murdoch Hall uses a traditional shoebox form across two seating levels, with sculpted Australian Hoop Pine panels shaping the sound and sight of the room. For smaller shows, the Salon can shift between concert seating, cabaret tables and in-the-round setups.