Welcome to the May edition of Australian Accent, Limelight’s proudly parochial monthly round-up of the Australian music being played on our concert stages and in our recital halls.

Got a premiere to puff? A piece getting a repeat performance? Submit your works via our Google Form or email editors@limelight-arts.com.au for inclusion in next month’s round-up (subject to editorial discretion).

We’ve also have a week-by-week breakdown of the works being performed on our Instagram for something a little more digestible.

Touring

Elizabeth Younan. Photo © Louie Douvie

Musica Viva Australia has put pianist Aura Go, cellist Timo-Veikko Valve and violinist Kristian Winther together for the touring program Beethoven’s Ghost. Alongside Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ trio and another from Ravel is a new work from Australian composer Melody Eötvös. The tour begins in Newcastle on 5 May before travelling to Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. Details here.

The Australian String Quartet takes its Interwoven program on a national tour from May 11-21, starting with a concert in Perth. The concert takes its name from Elizabeth Younan’s String Quartet No. 1, Interwoven. Tour details here.

Australian Capital Territory

Fiona Hill. Portrait supplied

The Canberra International Music Festival is hosting new and repertoire works by several leading Australian composers. The Australian String Quartet’s Interwoven (1 May) is named for Elizabeth Younan’s String Quartet No. 1. Contemporary works by Elena Kats-Chernin feature in the Prohibition Rags program at Lucky’s on 2 May.

Also on 2 May, CIMF’s all-day MOSSO takeover of the National Film and Sound Archive brings together works by Festival composer-in-residence Fiona Hill, Nat Bartsch, Aaron Wyatt, Nardi Simpson, Nicole Smede, Aaron Wyatt, Davin Ojala and Sebastian Field.

Ross Edwards’ Water-Spirit Song is part of a Sunday morning concert featuring accordionist James Crabb on 3 May. After that, you might have time to dash over to the Member’s Hall of Parliament House for CIMF Artistic Director and composer Eugene Ughetti‘s Bell Curve.

Also on 3 May, from 12.30pm, Bell Plains sees the National Carillon – Australia’s largest instrument – in conversation with guitar, saxophone, marimba, the Federation Handbells and evocative ambient soundscapes. This special anniversary program features Sally Whitwell’s Snaking, Dulcie Holland’s impressionist jewel The Lake, Peggy Polias’s Montage and Chris Sainsbury‘s reimagining of the folk tune Wild Colonial Boy. Nat Bartsch’s Together pays tribute to Canberra’s public servants, and Ronan Apcar’s Bikeway, complete with sampled bicycle chains, pedals and bells, celebrates the city’s cycling culture.

Fiona Hill also has a new work airing in the Pianos and Percussion Festival Finale on 3 May, and works by Tilman Robinson, Damien Ricketson, Jess Green, Dan Walker, Jessica O’Donoghue, Olivia Davies, Sam Weiss and Marcus Whale feature in Luminescence and the Machine (also 3 May).

On 20–21 May, in The Sea & Stars, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra plays a program of Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s Dutala – Star Filled Sky, Debussy’s La Mer and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

New South Wales

Vatche Jambazian.

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music String Orchestra, conducted by Roger Benedict, presents an expressive program for strings spanning pastoral lyricism and contemporary Australian voices on 1 May. It features works by Elgar, Gerald Finzi, Ella Macens and Paul Stanhope in collaboration with Molly Jalakbiya.

Alister Spence drops his new solo piano album Clocks and Clouds at Church St Studios, Camperdown on 2 May.

On 7 May, the Sydney Con’s New Music Ensemble presents their first concert of 2026 collaborating with Switzerland’s Ensemble Contrechamps. This program features works by two SCM alumnae, Beth Roche and Katia Geha.

Ensemble Offspring’s Avant Gardens Autumn program can be heard in private gardens in Woollahra and Hurlstone Park on 9 and 10 May. Among music by Gubaidulina, Braxton and Saariaho is Jack Symonds’ Releasing the Marble.

Trio Kin – violinist Emma McGrath, cellist Hyung Suk Bae, and pianist Vatche Jambazian – play Phoenix Central Park on 11 May. On the bill is are two world premiere performances: of Ross Edwards‘ Piano Trio No. 2 and of Vatche Jambazian‘s own Quiet Chaos. Entry is free by ballot. Register here.

Bree van Reyk (percussion) presents her large ensemble project Superclusters, “highlighting her rich musical universe of collaboration, spontaneity and adventure” at the Vanguard, Newtown on 20 May.

Oren Ambarchi plays the Utzon Room at Sydney Opera House on 24 May – his first performance at the SOH since 2002

Queensland

Cathy Milliken. Photo © Annika Bauer

Led by conductor Jessica Gethin and featuring Principal First Violin Johnny van Gend, this Queensland Symphony Orchestra concert in Toowoomba on 1 May promises a celebration of elegance and virtuosity. In it, you’ll hear Jessica Wells’ Suite from Butterfly Effect, a World Premiere offering a fresh take on the iconic opera. You can also hear the piece on 3 May in the QPAC Concert Hall.

Presented by Ed le Brocq, Ensemble Q’s Mothers’ Day Concert (10 May) offers a brand new work by Anne Cawrse, the Mozart Clarinet Quintet and more. 

Opening on 13 May, The Drover’s Wife is a new opera based on the play, novel and film by Leah Purcell, scored by George Palmer and performed live by Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

On 16 May, Ensemble Q’s Step Inside the Music all-dayer at Sandgate Town Hall has music by Anne Cawrse, Paul Dean and emerging composers.

And leading off a program of Rachmaninov and Shostakovich on 23 May in the QPAC Concert Hall, is Catalogue of Sky, an intriguing fanfare by Brisbane-born Cathy Milliken.

South Australia

Anne Cawrse. Photo © Andrew Beveridge

On 1 May, Nexus Arts Orchestra presents a collection of musical works featuring world premier compositions by South Australian cellist and composer Jack Overall.

At North Adelaide Baroque Hall on 9 May, oboist Celia Craig, bassoonist Mark Gaydon and pianist/harpsichordist Josh van Konkelenberg take on Handel sonatas, a Poulenc trio and selections from Anne Cawrse’s Carmen Perpetuum.

Contemporary Winds, a lunchtime concert at Elder Hall, Adelaide on 15 May opens with a new work by Thomas Godwin, composition student at Elder Conservatorium.

The Coriole Music Festival takes place on the weekend of 16-17 May. Among the music featured: a new commission, titled Stellar, by Australian composer Belinda Gehlert; a premiere by Anne Cawrse (This Too Shall Pass); and Alice Chance‘s Nose Scrunch Reel. 

At UKARIA Cultural Centre on 17 May, percussionist Claire Edwardes will play a solo recital to launch her new album, Dual Attractor. The set includes Kate Moore‘s Joyful Melodies.

And circling back to North Adelaide Baroque Hall on 23 May, you can hear Time Sphere by Jakub Jankowski in a lunchtime program delivered by pianist James Huon George.

Tasmania

Van Diemen’s Band is presenting the second of its Lunchbox concerts in Launceston on 6 May. Marshall McGuire (harp) and Simon Martyn-Ellis (theorbo) explore music from 17th Century Europe and 21st Century Australia, including Old Ground by Alice Chance.

At the C3 Church in Anglesea St, South Hobart on 14 May, Hobart Chamber Orchestra and Brigham Young University Chamber Orchestra, touring from USA, present a collaborative program – Canyons & Coastlines – of Australian and American repertoire, conducted by Gary Wain and Nathan Haines. Australian works include Don Kay‘s Mathinna in the Red Dress; Daniel Holloway‘s Australian Landscapes and Percy Grainger‘s Theme from County Derry.

Victoria

Eric Avery. Photo supplied.

Australian guitarist-composer Slava Grigoryan and Austrian bassist Al Slavik reunite for an Australian tour celebrating the release of their 3rd album And so, it turns. They play at Tempo Rubato, Brunswick on 1 May.

Kaylie Melville, Artistic Director of Speak Percussion and Co-Artistic Director of Rubiks Collective, returns to the Abbotsford Convent on 15 May to direct ANAM’s percussionists in a program anchored by Missy Mazzoli’s Millennium Canticles and featuring Melbourne composer Jeanette Little‘s Shifting Worlds.

Eric Avery’s new work, created with the Flinders Quartet, will have its world premiere as part of the Voices Between Worlds concerts in Melbourne at St Johns Southgate on 14 May, Montsalvat Barn Gallery on 17 May and Melbourne Recital Centre on 18 May.

The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra Players are on the road from 21 May (visiting Stawell, Hamilton before returning to Melbourne). They’ll be playing Mozart, Dvořák and Andrew Ford‘s Sad Jigs.

Arcadia Winds returns to Abbotsford Convent on 29 May with a Homecomings program that includes two Aussie works: a world premiere of Sextet by Lachlan Skipworth and Mark Holdsworth‘s Hellfire.

On 29 May at Tempo Rubato, harpist-composers Natalia Mann, Paul Nicolaou and Katia Mestrovic come together for a concert featuring music by Lisa Cheney, Ross Edwards, Nigel Westlake as well as compositions of their own

Western Australia

Artist-led and delightfully unpredictable, the Tone List: Audible Edge ’26 festival (1-3 May) of exploratory music, housed in Fremantle’s Victoria Hall, creates a space for virtuosic and “anti-virtuosic” improvisation, forward-thinking club sets, and participatory play. Seed-funded artists include Perth-based sound artist amby downs, composer Simon Charles and experimental electronic music producers Lia T & R. Glacken.

At 12, violinist Ellie Malonzo was the youngest ever soloist with the Fremantle Chamber orchestra. Now 16, she is composing for it. Her latest work, Concerto for Violin and Viola No. 2, gets its world premiere airing on 16 May at St Patrick’s Basilica, Fremantle, and 17 May at PHC Synagogue, Menora.