Guide to Australian Art Music
- Spotify
- Bandcamp
- Composer's website
- Limelight articles
- AMC Represented
In partnership with Cameron Lam, Limelight invited readers to use its Guide to Australian Art Music to explore, listen and vote for their ten favourite tracks of Australian art music. Here’s your picks, shown in alphabetical order.
The votes are in – listen to the results!
Tracklist – Seabirds (51–75)
Ayda Akbal
Balık (Fish)
Performed by Ayda Akbal & Budapest String Quartet
Bridget Bourne
Earth-Shaped Hearts: III. Star Fire
Performed by Alta Collective & Bridget Bourne
Flora Carbo
Little Jog
Performed by Flora Carbo
Theo Carbo
Gesualdo
Performed by The Rest Is Silence
Alice Chance
Old Ground
Performed by Laura Vaughan
Gina Ismene Chitty
Boogie Bossa On the Rock!
Performed by Patryk Pająk & Tomasz Widłak
Meta Cohen
a love is a love is a love – a queer song cycle: IV. we
Performed by Divisi Chamber Singers & Coady Green
Hugh Crosthwaite
Courage Horizon
Performed by Stefan Cassomenos
Margot Dean
Blue Whale Heart Song
Performed by Musescore Choir with samples from Ocean Networks Canada
Nigel Featherstone
Nocturnal
Performed by Hell Herons
Dan Frizza (Mittere)
Storm Lines
Performed by Dan Frizza, Monique Irik & Freya Schack-Arnott
Freyja Garbett
Ballroom ’44
Performed by Daniel Pliner, Matthew Keegan, Max Alduca, Miles Thomas, Freya Schack-Arnott, Véronique Serret & Dom Kirk
Hilary Geddes
First
Performed by Matt Harris, Max Alduca, Alexander Inman-Hislop
Rose Marie Gonzalez
Maracajá
Performed by Rose Kavanagh, Jordan Tarento & Rose Marie Gonzalez
Brooke Green
The Spirit of Daphne
Performed by Laura Vaughan
Stuart Greenbaum
Seeing Earth
Performed by Ensemble Franciax
Holly Harrison
Splinter
Performed by Adelaide Wind Orchestra & Bryan Griffiths
Cameron Lam
Blood Red, Leaves Green
Performed by Divisi Chamber Singers
Henry Liang
Mori: II. The Daily Grind
Performed by Henry Liang
Alexandra Mison
Spirit of the Banana Shire. I: Ruby
Performed by Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra
Carolyn Morris
Blue Ocean
Performed by Isabel Dobarro
Rosie O’Reilly
Once
Performed by The Australian Voices
Nick Russoniello
Dawn Searching
Performed by Nick Russoniello
Paul Stanhope
Cloudforms
Performed by Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra & Benjamin Northey
Cassie To
After the Storm
Performed by Cassie To & River Suite Orchestra
Featured composers
Ayda Akbal
Ayda Akbal is a Turkish-Australian composer and artist born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, currently living and working overseas. Growing up travelling to visit family across the world in Türkiye, Ayda Akbal was exposed to the idea of existing in more than one space, culture, and identity from a young age. Through her use of a ‘strong methodology grounded in research’ whilst also ‘prioritising intuitive creativity and improvisation’, she aids in the telling of stories through her music.
Bridget Bourne
Bridget Bourne is an award-winning percussionist-composer hailing from Melbourne/Naarm, whose works have been performed around the world including in the USA, Switzerland, France, Germany, Greece, Slovenia and across Australia. As both performer and composer, her work explores the boundaries that link music, dance, art, and theatre – unearthing the musicality of physical gesture, the rhythm of visual art, and the melody of everyday sounds/objects.
Flora Carbo
Flora Carbo is a saxophonist, composer and music leader from Naarm. Her unique practice creates novel musical environments that connect people through improvisation, composition and conceptual works, led by her explorations into the vocal qualities of the alto saxophone.
Theo Carbo
Theo Carbo is a guitarist, composer, electronic musician, producer and sound engineer. A keen philosopher of music and a student of composition at the Victorian College of the Arts, Theo has recently been developing a broader practise which involves elements of experimental composition, electronic processes, solo and ensemble improvisation and studio engineering.
Alice Chance
Alice Chance is an award-winning composer who takes playfulness very seriously. Known for her bold melodies, cheeky harmonic language, and love of working with all kinds of musicians, her work has been performed in France, the UK, Japan, USA and Singapore as well as in concert halls, paddocks and school auditoriums around Australia.
Gina Ismene Chitty
Dr. Gina Ismene Chitty is an Australian composer, pianist, author, poet and artist who blends classical precision with multicultural influences and jazz rhythms. Her unique, rhythmically complex compositions are regularly published and performed internationally.
Meta Cohen
Meta Cohen is a composer, sound designer and dramaturg with work spanning music, theatre and interdisciplinary art. Their work has been commissioned and performed in diverse venues across Australia, the UK and the US, and has been described as ‘meteoric’ (ClassikON); ‘fiendishly virtuosic’ (Classic Melbourne); ‘a captivating odyssey beyond the ordinary’ (What’s On Sydney) and ‘bristling with a rich tapestry of evocative music-making’ (Australian Arts Review). As an artist working across multiple artforms, Meta is particularly interested in the theatricality of sound and the musicality of theatre, viewing their work as a composer and dramaturg as inextricably linked.
Hugh Crosthwaite
Hugh Crosthwaite (BMUS LBLG (Hons)) is an internationally renown composer of contemporary art music. Hugh’s music is inspired by his views on, and concern for, environmental degradation and animal welfare. Hugh is also well known for his solo instrumental music which enjoys a wide streaming audience and has been included in the AMEB violin syllabus.
Margot Dean
As a competitor in the ABC Young Performers Awards 1994, Margot Dean was joint winner of the Instrumental Section, performing live on television with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. Former Section Principal Bassoon with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and former soloist with orchestras in Australia and Europe, Margot has turned her skills to composing classical and crossover music with kindness and care for humanity.
Her writing is inspired by situations where seemingly impossible odds are overcome, praised by international magazine, Das Orchester, as “able to literally enchant and captivate…[and bearing witness to]…a profound knowledge of playing technique.”
Nigel Featherstone
Nigel Featherstone is an award-winning writer for the page, stage, and music. He is the founder of Hell Herons, a spokenword+music collective featuring Melinda Smith, Stuart Barnes, and CJ Bowerbird.
Dan Frizza (Mittere)
Mittere is the solo project of Australian composer, producer and mixer Dan Frizza. Blending ambient sounds, cinematic textures and organic instrumentation, Mittere creates immersive soundscapes that drift between stillness and emotional intensity.
Freyja Garbett
Freyja Garbett is an ARIA Award-winning pianist, composer and producer who graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in Performance and Jazz Composition, and recently completed a Master of Music at the Sydney Conservatorium, exploring the sonification of surfing motion data.Her work spans jazz, improvisation, electronic music and composition, including her debut album Maya, the video-game score and album Sowden House, and Music from the Waves for ABC Jazz.
Hilary Geddes
Hilary Geddes is an award-winning guitarist, composer and bandleader based in Sydney, Australia on Gadigal Land. Her timbral approaches to jazz and improvisation has earned international recognition, with her latest album Redleaf receiving widespread critical acclaim and airplay across Australia, the UK and Europe. A dynamic performer and collaborator, Geddes leads her own quartet while working as an in-demand guitarist across the country.
Rose Marie Gonzalez
A finger-style guitarist, Rose’s devotion to the guitar started from a young age and now spans over two decades of dedicated practice. Well-established in Melbourne’s music scene, Rose performs regularly as a soloist and collaborator, showcasing her diverse music influences and virtuosic guitar technique as she traverses Latin music to classical guitar styles.
Brooke Green
Brooke Green is a composer with a particular interest in exploring the sound world of early instruments such as the viol. As artistic director of Josie and the Emeralds, she also enjoys bringing theatrical elements into their music productions. Her music can be heard on their Tall Poppies CDs The Emerald Phoenix and The Emerald Leopard.
Stuart Greenbaum
The Stuart Greenbaum sound has overt connections to jazz, pop and minimalism but is equally grounded in the Western art music tradition. Having studied composition with Broadstock and Conyngham at the University of Melbourne, Stuart Greenbaum holds a position at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music as Professor Emeritus, having also served as Head of Composition from 2007 to 2023. He is the author of over 250 works including 26 sonatas, 9 string quartets, 5 piano trios, 7 concertos, 6 symphonies and 2 operas. Stuart Greenbaum is published by Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia.
Holly Harrison
Holly Harrison is an Australian composer from Western Sydney. Her music is driven by the nonsense literature of Lewis Carroll, embracing stylistic juxtapositions, the visceral energy of rock, and whimsical humour. Highly in-demand, Holly’s works are frequently heard across Australia, Asia, Europe, and the USA. Her music has been described as “exploding off the page”, full of “riotous energy, eclectic rhythmic complexity” and “inventive, witty and invested with thrilling dynamism and momentum”.
Cameron Lam
Cameron Lam (he/they) is Melbourne-based composer, obsessive dabbler, excitable research nerd, and joyful collaborator. His music has been described by Limelight Magazine as “a fantastical world in which mythological stories come to life” and “infused with a Northern European sensibility – dark, emotional, restrained”. This has most recently led to being shortlisted for Australia’s prestigious Paul Lowin Prize for their spectral a cappella song cycle about getting naked and loving your queer self, The Splendour of Lying Naked in the Sun.
Henry Liang
Han Yi (Henry) Liang 梁瀚艺 is a performer and composer based in Sydney, Australia. Known for his specialisation on the Japanese shō (笙) – a free-reed wind instrument consisting of seventeen bamboo pipes, integral to the Imperial Court music of Japan known as Gagaku.
Alexandra Mison
Alexandra Mison (she/her) is a composer, arranger and pianist based in Magandjin/Brisbane, Australia. Her music has been described as ‘an essay in capturing still, intensely felt emotion’. Her works have been performed in Australia and internationally by ensembles such as Omega Ensemble, Camerata (Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra), Vox Camerata and Cerulean Collective.
Carolyn Morris
Carolyn Morris is a composer, oboist and pianist from Melbourne, Australia. Many of her compositions are inspired by nature and she aims to uplift the audience and performers with her music. Carolyn’s piano piece Blue Ocean is included on Spanish pianist Isabel Dobarro’s album Kaleidoscope, which won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Album in 2025.
Rosie O'Reilly
Rosie O’Reilly (she/her) is a composer, singer and educator, now based in Naarm/Melbourne and originally from the Northern Territory. She has composed for The Australian Voices and Choral Edge alongside works for young voices, with her music characterised by lush harmonic textures and finding beauty in ordinary moments.
Nick Russoniello
Nick Russoniello is an acclaimed Australian saxophonist, composer, ensemble leader, and educator. A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Conservatorio di Musica “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan, Nick has performed as a soloist or guest artist with many of Australia’s leading arts organisations. In 2026, Nick was awarded the APRA Art Music Award for Performance of the Year (Soloist) for his original composition Air Mass, written for saxophones, electronics, and a mass audience soundscape.
Paul Stanhope
Paul Stanhope is a Sydney-based composer, conductor and music educator. His works span symphonic, chamber music, choral and dramatic musical forms. A former Music Director of Sydney Chamber Choir, Paul is the current Artistic Chair of The Australia Ensemble and an Associate Professor of Composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Cassie To
Cassie’s music is refined but textured, with each composition carefully crafted to appeal to the rawest elements of humanity – emotion, memory and feeling. She has composed for a variety of ensembles both nationally and internationally, as well as for screen with credits including ABC, SBS, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Stan. In 2026 she released her first album Heart Songs with Amica Records.