Welcome to the October edition of Australian Accent, Limelight‘s unashamedly parochial monthly roundup 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? 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

Luminescence Chamber Singers continue on a national tour with Garden of Earthly Delights from 2–12 October, inspired by the whimsical surrealism of painter Hieronymous Bosch. The hugely diverse program spans Hildegard von Bingen to the present with the world premieres of Nicole Murphy‘s Escape and Archie Tulk‘s Ode to An Apple.

Nick Wales and Rrawun Maymuru. Photo © Camila Tassino

The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra’s Water Music travels to Melbourne and Sydney across 9–18 October, and with it the world premiere of Rrawun Maymuru and Nick Wales‘ Nguy Gapu [Ocean Water]. The concert also includes the Australian premier of Wales’ five-minute work for strings, Harbour Light, and a new arrangement of ARIA-winner Sophie Hutchings‘ Cloud Beneath the Sea.

As part of its 50th birthday celebrations, the Australian Chamber Orchestra is reviving its film-and-music concert experience Mountain for a short tour beginning in Brisbane (QPAC, 27 October). Accompanying director Jennifer Peedom’s astonishing visuals will be music by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Chopin, Peter Sculthorpe and Richard Tognetti. For tour details visit this link.

 Australian Capital Territory

The Alma Moodie Quartet teams up with Edward Neeman to play the Wesley Music Centre on 4 October for an afternoon concert of Bach, Haydn and Margaret Sutherland (her Chorale Prelude on Jesu, meine Freude).

New South Wales

The Australian Chamber Ochestra is presenting its new families show, Where to Hide a Star, from 1–11 October at the ACO Pier at Walsh Bay. Based on the internationally bestselling children’s book by Oliver Jeffers, it features original music by Elena Kats-Chernin.

The Australian Flute Competition will be held at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music across 3–6 October, and Australian works are required repertoire: in the finals, soloists perform Peggy Polias‘s Aeons, trios perform Christopher Sainsbury‘s Bardo, quartets air the third movement of Maria Grenfell‘s Pipe Music, and piccolos tackle the second movement of Paul Stanhope‘s Piccolo Concerto. The Young Artists competition, for performers 18 and younger, features Andrew Howes‘ Night Lights.

The Sydney Conservatorium Music Big Band performs a lunchtime concert of original works composed by Chiara Minotto,including the premiere of The Last Chapter and Near & Far on 8 October.

Holly Harrison. Portrait © Sally Tsoutas

In the Sydney Opera House’s Utzon Room, Sydney Symphony Orchestra presents Mozart & Harrison (10–11 October), a showcase of Mozart’s 1789 Clarinet Quintet and Holly Harrison‘s Spitfire for clarinet and string trio.

Hourglass Ensemble premieres The Fire Always Says Yes, a new song cycle by composer Anna Hirst Friedman in collaboration with Bondi poet Jessica Chapnik Kahn. The program also features works by Robert Davidson and Ollie Muller. There are two performances, the first on 11 October at Uniting Heart & Soul of Woollahra, the second in the Utzon Room, Sydney Opera House, 25 October.

Also on  25 October, a Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival performance celebrating the residency of German composer Claudia Doffinger features a collection of big band works by female composers including Nadje Noordhuis‘s Mercy Dance (as arranged by Vanessa Perica) and Chiara Minotto‘s Indigo and Change of Weather.

Queensland

The Sunshine Coast hinterland’s Long Listen Festival kicks off on 3 October with a performance of Véronique Serret‘s Migrating Bird, an intimate journey inspired by Australian landscapes. William Barton joins on yidaki and guitar.

Véronique Serret. Photo © Wendell Teodoro

On 4 October, Ensemble Q takes to the stage at Palmwoods Memorial Hall to play several composers, including Australians Kate Moore and Elena Kats-Chernin. On 5 October, again at Palmwoods, you can here works by Sally Whitwell (Road Trip for flute and piano), Brenda Gifford (Bardju), Elena Kats-Chernin (Butterflying), Ian Munro (Songs from the Bush) and the world premiere of a Nicole Murphy composition.

On 10 October, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra heads to Townsville for Orchestral Adventures as a part of its education program. With rising star Sam Weller on the podium, the program features Maria Grenfell‘s Alegria, Joe Twist’s Ancient Lights, Mystic Sky and Matthew Hindson’s Speed.

Presented by Southern Cross Soloists on 12 October, Wonder explores the poignant story of the entwined lives of Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms through music, movement and the words of their letters.These intimate works of love, grief, and friendship are woven with a new composition for didgeridoo and ensemble by Ray Lin and Chris Williams.

South Australia

On 4 October, The Bowerbird Collective and soprano Bethany Hill head to Carrick Hill for a musical journey into forests, under water, and across the lands. Repertoire includes works by Vaughan Williams, Handel, Charpentier and Purcell and South Australian Jodie O’Regan. The concert is reprised at Coriole Winery on 5 October.

Jodie O’Regan. Portrait © Andrew Beveridge

Adelaide Chamber Singers are presenting Thomas Tallis’ 40-part motet Spem in alium on 25 October, and with it, a major commissioned work – again in 40 parts – by Carl Crossin.

Tasmania

For the princely sum of nothing (yes, a free gig!) the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Concertinos Concert on 3 October will air original compositions from 2024-25 Australian Composer School students Naomi Dodd, Ben Robinson, Fiona Hill and Joe Franklin.

Then, on 24 October in the TSO Studio, pianist Vanessa Sharman will play a selection of “lullabies for the modern world” by composers Don Kay, Angus Davison and more.

Victoria

This year’s Merlyn Myer Commission fellows Alice Chance and Chloe Kim see the world premiere of their collaborative work Joy Extract for Syzygy Ensemble at Melbourne Recital Centre on 1 October.

The AYO Chamber Players’ Threads of Time concert at Melbourne Recital Centre on 5 October features 18 of the country’s most promising young musicians and the Flinders Quartet. On the program the World Premiere performance of Four Rooms by Lee Bradshaw.

The Port Fairy Spring Chamber Music Festival returns across 10–12 October, utterly flush with Australian compositions. Throughout ther program you can hear works by Elena Kats-Chernin, Amos Roach, Kym Alexandra Dillon, Maria Grenfell, Wally Gunn, Neeharika Shyju, Kate Moore and Stefan Cassomenos as well as world premieres from Paul Dean and Lee Bradshaw. There’s also a concert celebrating the accomplishment of musical polymath Aaron Wyatt, with his works also scattered throughout the program.

Over at Tempo Rubato, guitarist Ken Murray performs Melody Eötvos, Christopher Sainsbury and a new work from Christine McCombe on 9 October; Duo Eclettico and clarinettist Luke Carbon team up for a program that includes works by Barry Conygham and Louisa Trewortha on 17 October, Aussie new muisic staples ELISION take on Liza Lim and NZ composer Nathaniel Otley; Seraphim Trio perform spins on a Schubert waltz by Calvin Bowman, Elena Kats-Chernin and Andrea Keller on 27 October; and pianist Ronan Apcar and violinist Sola Hughes take on Kate Moore‘s Heather on 31 October.

Adam Manning. Photo supplied.

On 19 October, composer, percussionist artist and Kamilario man Adam Manning performs his work First Rhythms in an ensemble as a part of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Also at MRC on 22 October is the world premiere of Marshall McGuire Emerging Composer Commission works from Moses Kingston-Walberg and Lilijana Matičevska, as performed by Rubiks Collective; followed by The Cloud Maker – the Art Music Award-winning collaborative project by Te Kahureremoa Taumata, Maria Moles, Freya Schack-Arnott, Sunny Kim and Aviva Endean – on 30 October.

Flinders Quartet (FQ) concludes its 25th anniversary season with AUSTRALIA FAIR?, a concert program that contemplates identity and belonging through works by Dvořák, Deborah Cheetham Fraillon (her 2020 string quartet Bungaree) and Bryony Marks, whose Australia Fair? was inspired by images sourced by Marks from the National Film and Sound Archive. Performances will be held at St John Southgate (23 October); St Peter’s Anglican Church (25 October); Monsalvat Great Hall (26 October) and in the Primrose Potter Salon on 29 October (details here)

Aether Duo – flautist Robert McIntyre and pianist Sam Williams – perform at the Supreme Court of Victoria Law Library on 30 October. On the program is McIntyre’s Sky-Stained Waves and Williams’ CHameleon on the Wind.

Western Australia

The Silver Sands Guitar Quartet takes the stage for York Festival on 3 October with a program that features commissioned works from Marion Budos, Richard Charlton, Joey Eng, Jacques Fimbel and more.