In his final year as Artistic Director, Roland Peelman has chosen to open the festival with William Barton, Persian tar player Hamed Sadeghi and Belgian jazz pianist Bram De Looze, as well as Lior and Nigel Westlake’s Compassion. Guitar virtuoso Pavel Ralev, violist Florian Peelman, France’s Trio Karénine and Dudok Quartet Amsterdam all make an appearance, as do Bach Akademie Australia and Luminescence Chamber Singers, in what promises to be an exciting week in the nation’s capital.

Limelight Editor’s Choice

Celebrating Luigi Nono and Larry Sitsky, two major figures in music from opposite ends of the globe, Venice and Canberra. Both captured the great existential dilemmas of the 20th century, each in their own idiosyncratic way. Nono’s oeuvre was rooted in political activism before softening into purified, other-worldly strands of sound transcending the here and now. Sitsky, now into his tenth decade, found his wings in pre-revolutionary China and embraced the ethnic origins of his family before settling in Canberra. His legacy is as prolific as it is lively and direct.