Arts Centre Melbourne Announces White Night Offerings, 22 Feb

As the sun sets on White Night this Saturday 22 February, Arts Centre Melbourne will become a site of bewitching entertainment, including an eerily beautiful self-playing piano and all-night ghost tours in the depths below the stages.

From 7pm - 7am, visitors to Hamer Hall will feel the presence of Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff himself in Rachmaninoff Live, in which a beautifully restored player piano will expertly recreate the composer's infamously difficult repertoire. Rachmaninoff Live features a late 1920s Mason & Hamlin grand reproducing piano, which has been painstakingly brought back to life by collector and restorer Rick Alabaster over the past several years. Never seen or heard in Australia before, the Mason & Hamlin was the most expensive piano in the world at the time it was built.

The ghosts of productions past will also be evoked in the popular Phantoms of the Theatre Ghost Tours departing every 15 minutes from the concierge desk from 7pm onwards in Arts Centre Melbourne's Theatres Building. Venturing beneath the stages and into hidden areas and secret passageways unknown to most visitors, those brave enough to embark on the tour will hear about some of Australia's most famous theatre hauntings, the history of deadly incidents on the site Arts Centre Melbourne was built on and the building's own encounters with the supernatural. Tours are free but bookings essential - phone 1300 182 183 or visit www.artscentremelbourne.com.au

Arts Centre Melbourne will also be a major food hub during White Night with Arts Centre Melbourne's food and beverage outlets, including Curve Bar, Café Vic, Cento and the Tram Bar operating throughout the night until 7am Sunday 23 February. A pop-up market stalls and bars, including a Night Hawkers Market dispensing a variety of cuisines, will also decorate the forecourt and surrounding areas.

For those seeking less spectral entertainment, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra presents their own tribute to Russian composers in Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky at 7pm, Sidney Myer Music Bowl. Part of their annual season of free concerts, Andrew Gourlay will conduct this thrilling all-Russian program, including that infamous "Rach 3" solo from the film Shine played by Melbourne's own Caroline Almonte.

At 4pm and 8:30pm in the Fairfax Studio, Olivier Award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett's razor-sharp play c*ckdissects one man's emotional indecision in our commitment-phobic age. Earning rave reviews from its New York and London seasons, the comedy-of-manners follows John, who begins sleeping with a woman after a breaking up with his long-term boyfriend. This production is set to original music by Missy Higgins and will be directed by MTC Associate Director Leticia Cáceres.

For more information about Arts Centre Melbourne visit artscentremelbourne.com.au or phone 1300 182 183.