THE Griffyns, once described in these pages as “Canberra’s premier chamber music ensemble”, have been taking a kind of sabbatical.

Director and founder, the composer Michael Sollis, has been at the centre of arts activism; his wife, flautist Kiri has been seen on stage with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and sting duo Chris Stone and Holly Downes have been performing and doing workshops with young people.

“We thought it might be nice to do something different,” Sollis says. He’s just back from Moa Island in the Torres Strait where he’s been cooking up a major music performance to tour Victorian schools for Musica Viva, a fitting sequel to his earlier compositions inspired by music in Papua New Guinea and a way of continuing the Pacific connection.

“We thought that instead of a concert series we’d do a mini-festival, a different approach… and we are also looking at some different ways of involving the community so that they don’t just watch and can have an opportunity to create music,” he says.

The six months off regular performing has allowed them to think of new ideas, but it also faces the reality that many of the members of the Griffyn Ensemble, while trained in Canberra, have musical roles to play elsewhere, although the music here keeps them coming back.

Sollis is not readily daunted and, unlike some graduates of the ANU School of Music, he believes that despite changes at the school there is still a critical mass of music-making in town.

“Although no doubt it is very different, it means that people can still do interesting things within its musical landscape – that’s life, things change… as far as Griffyn goes, we just keep doing music,” he says.

With this in mind they’ve embarked on “Six Curious Concerts, a journey to Wonderland and back over five days”, which will take everyone down the musical rabbit hole into “curious” venues. Not all that curious, mind you – Canberra Contemporary Art Space Manuka, Gorman Arts Centre, Belconnen Arts Centre, and M16 Artspace – just not the national institutions where they usually play.

“We started to do something different, collaborating with local artists,” Sollis says.

“We have performed in Belconnen Arts Centre, for instance, but we haven’t actually worked with exhibitions there, so this was an opportunity to activate the space in a new and different way – sounding out the spaces.”

Collaborating with countertenor Tobias Cole, the ANU Chamber Choir and artists Dianne Firth and Jacqui Malins, the ensemble’s curious mini-festival includes three ticketed concerts, three free events, a lunchtime concert for primary school students and families, and the opportunity to have your own ideas interpreted by the Griffyns.

With textile artist Dianne Firth, they’ve responded to the landscape theme in her coming exhibition (which is itself a response to poetry) with music from Sollis’ composition “Northern Lights”, performed as the sun sets over Lake Ginninderra.

With artist and spoken-word poet Jacqui Malins, they have unearthed a musical equivalent of an archaeological dig, where voice and flute will match the spoken word in the tiny Canberra Contemporary Art Space in Manuka.

“Six Curious Concerts”, August 30-September 3. Bookings to griffyn.iwannaticket.com.au

The six concerts

Concert 1: “Curiouser and Curiouser”, an inside-out garden party with the ensemble, tenor Tobias Cole & Friends, and the ANU Chamber Singers. Belconnen Arts Centre, Wednesday, August 30.

Concert 2: “Reverse Archaeology”, Jacqui Malins exhibition, video and poetry to the musical sounds of an excavation. Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Manuka, Thursday, August 31. Free.

Concert 3: “A Night in Hyperreality”, clocks, Marilyn and the HYPERactive exhibition, Canberra Contemporary Arts Space Gorman Art Centre, Braddon, Friday, September 1.

Concert 4: “Singalong with Susan the Singsect”, Belconnen Arts Centre, Emu Bank Belconnen, 12.30pm, Saturday, September 2. Free.

Concert 5: “Venus and the Twilight Arch,” Michael Sollis’ composition “Northern Lights” combines with textiles of local landscapes by artist Dianne Firth. Belconnen Arts Centre, Emu Bank, 5pm, Saturday, September 2.

Concert 6: “Lines of Site”, M16 Artspace, Griffith, noon, Sunday, September 3. Free.