Welcome to the first edition of a new monthly Limelight feature – Australian Accent!

Australian Accent

Aaron Wyatt, Darwin Symphony Orchestra, Mindy Meng Wang and Lloyd Van’t Hoff

As a part of Limelight‘s ongoing commitment to Australian music, we’re launching an unabashedly parochial overview of the Australian composers and musicians getting a spin on home soil each month. Orchestral, chamber or solo, Australian Accent zooms in on the world premieres and repeat performances of Australian contemporary classical and art music, state-by-state.

Got a premiere to puff? A piece getting a repeat performance? Email editors@limelight-arts.com.au for inclusion in next month’s roundup (subject to editorial discretion).

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The big splash in Australian programming comes courtesy of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, which is offering wall-to-wall Australian content in two concerts.

Curated by composer Liza Lim and conductor Ben Northey, the MSO’s Metropolis Festival kicks off on 16 April. The first concert features Holly Harrison’s urban fanfare Hi-Viz (in which the activity of roadworks is re-imagined through electronic dance music, bootscooting and disco), Ella Macens’ lyrical The Space Between Stars and Fiona Hill’s Śūnyatā, a work first performed in 2021 with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

“It’s quite interesting to...