Limelight could rattle off a rather impressive list of credits and commissions to introduce emerging Sydney-based composer Aija Draguns, but what she carries in her bag can tell her story just as well.

Here’s a tote bristling with the score from her recent commission, a phone chock-full of 10-minute sonic doodles in the Voice Memos app, and a pair of glasses – she’d figured out she needed them after tackling the ” monster of a score” that is Mahler Eight as a conducting assistant with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs two years ago.

“There’s 100+ instruments and I had a big A3 copy, and I couldn’t read it. It was so blurry. I went to the optometrist the second day of studying and they said, ‘yeah, mate, you need glasses’,” she laughs.

Aija Draguns at the Sydney Conservatorium.

Aija Draguns. Photo © Ruari Campbell/Sydney Conservatorium of Music

And here’s that list anyway: Draguns is a fast-rising composer and conductor who has been commissioned and performed by The Australian Voices, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney Chamber Choir, among others. Her one-act opera In Cosmic Utero was nominated for a 2025 Art...