Most Sydneysiders have likely never set foot in the city’s Great Synagogue.

Built like a pocket-sized Gothic cathedral and sandwiched between drab office blocks and shops near Hyde Park, the 19th century marvel, with its interior of grand midnight -blue ceilings, glittering chandeliers and Byzantine mosaics, evokes a spiritual, otherworldly magic.

It was the kind of beauty conductor and pianist Vladimir Fanshil wanted to combine with music. Now his concert series Live at the Great will bring music to the synagogue for the third year running, in a series of five recitals featuring some of Australia’s finest performers.

The original concert in 2021 – the first time live music had been played in the Great Synagogue – was itself another accident of COVID. When the pandemic shut down the world in March 2020, Fanshil and his opera singer wife Eleanor Lyons were forced to put their burgeoning careers in Europe on hold, staying in Sydney.

While some musicians migrated to Zoom, with varying degrees of success, Fanshil and Lyons worked within the COVID restrictions to create a series of small, intimate concerts in people’s homes.

As lockdowns waxed and waned then disappeared for good, their quest “to pair music with other beautiful things” took them to larger spaces like art galleries and cathedrals around the city. Then Fanshil discovered the synagogue.

“It’s this secret treasure trove, a secret gem hidden in the centre of the CBD,” he says. “It’s a living space, a space that really speaks to you through its architecture.”

Despite substantial logistical challenges – getting a concert grand piano in the door can be tricky – the synagogue’s high ceilings and wooden interiors make for a warm acoustic Fanshil describes as “quite magical”.