Welcome to the September 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

In the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s A Musical Awakening program (4–21 September), Melody Eötvös‘s Meraki (a Greek word, she explains, meaning “doing something with soul, creativity or love”) will be performed in Sydney, Newcastle, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Canberra and Brisbane, as will Erkki Veltheim‘s interpretations of von Bingen’s works.

The Song Company’s Pairings and Odd Couples spans from early chant to contemporary works from Australian composers, including Mary Finsterer and its guest director Huw Belling. It tours NSW and Canberra from 12–21 September.

Featuring violinist Alexandra Osborne and cellist Catherine Hewgill, Selby & Friends’ Songs Without Words tours NSW, Melbourne and Canberra across 12–18 September, borrowing its title from a 2020 work by Anne Cawrse.

Musica Viva Australia is touring the Arcadia Winds quintet from 14–16 September. In a concert celebrating the beauty and occasioanl quirkiness of nature, you’ll hear Honeybee by Anne Cawrse and Holly Harrison‘s Phasmid Funk.

Melbourne ensemble Rubiks Collective marks its 10th anniversary with a world premiere tour of Matthew Shlomowitz & Vid Simoniti‘s The Big Idea. It tours to Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra from 25–27 September.

Tasmania’s Van Diemen’s Band embarks on a mainland tour from 25 September – 3 October with Ensemble Kaboul. In a program blending arrangements of Afghan and Persian music with the late 19th century piano compositions of Erik Satie, you’ll find Obsession by Tassie composer Luke Plumb.

Australian Capital Territory

Pretty quiet for Aussie music in the ACT this month (unless you know different – drop us a line!) but the Canberra Symphony Orchestra is performing Corrina Bonshek‘s nature-inspired Dreams of the Earth I across 24–25 September in its Mozart‘s Requiem program.

New South Wales

At Neutral Bay’s Hayes Street Studio on 6 September, pianist Vatche Jambazian showcases his compositional chops in a recital with London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Clarinettist Benjamin Mellefont, where he will premiere a brand new work of his own.

Vatche Jambazian. Portrait supplied

Australian National Academy of Music students make the interstate trip for ANAM Sketches at ACO’s Pier 2/3 venue on 7 September, and bring two Australian works with them – Erkki Veltheim’s Heiligenschein for cello and electronics, and Jane Sheldon‘s brand new Talking with herself alone for solo viola.

Woodwind powerhouse Andromeda Sax Quartet brings Ella Macens’ Ripple to the Glebe Town Hall on 13 September in a program that showcases the ensemble’s favourite works.

Harry Sdraulig‘s trio Hat-Trick gets a slot in the 2025 Craven Creek Music Festival in the Encounters with Winds program across 13–14 September.

In Wagga Wagga on 14 September, The House That Dan Built presents its 100 Women, 100 Stories program, featuring six choral works from composers Jessica O’Donoghue, Prue Montin, Olivia Bryant, Leahanna Ceff, Aija Draguns and Audrey Ormella.

Aija Draguns also gets a performance alongside Ella Macens in Leichhardt Espresso Chorus’s Aurora program in Sydney on 14 September.

On 17 September in the Recital Hall West, Sydney Conservatorium, an intimate evening of music by Cyrus Meurant with guests Matthew Kneale, Kiran Phatak and Lloyd Van’t Hoff (Arcadia Winds). On the program: Three Pieces for wind trio, Sortie for solo piano (from the ballet Au revoir mon ami) and Stray Birds for bassoon and piano (inspired by the poetry of Tagore).

On 18 September at the Eugene Goossens Hall, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra fellows celebrate Australian Music Month with an all-Aussie composer program. Hear works by Georgia Scott, Katia Beaugeais, Stuart Greenbaum, Peggy Polias, Elena Kats-Chernin, Nadia Burgess and Holly Harrison.

Omega Ensemble’s annual New Now concert, showcasing the skills of its CoLAB program participants, once again takes to the Utzon Room on 25 September.  This year, it delivers world premiere works from composers Cassie To, Callum O’Reilly, Alexandra Mison and Oliver John Cameron.

Cameron is also a featured composer in Moorambilla Voices’ Gala Concert Riversong 2025: Skysong in Dubbo across 27–28 September. Also on the program is works by Kevin Barker, Elizabeth Jigalin and Christine Chen.

Sydney Chamber Choir’s Connections program, on 28 September at Verbruggen Hall, celebrates a broad sweep of musical traditions. Nigel Butterley, Meta Cohen, Aija Draguns, Clare Maclean, Nicholas Routley, Harry Sdraulig and Joe Twist make for a packed program of Aussie choral gems.

Queensland

On 5 September, you can hear Queensland Symphony Orchestra musicians performing new works composed by students from across the state. This event showcases music developed with QSO’s Craig Allister Young and Timothy Tate in a program designed to encourage the composers of tomorrow to expand their musical ideas and find their own artistic voice. Each composition was inspired by specific pieces of art by contemporary visual artist Arabella Walker.

Sound artist Robert Curgenven also showcases his Earth Works on 5 September at The University of Queensland, putting UQ Art Museum’s pipe organ to use for a “whole body listening” experience.

The Australian Voices offers a jam-packed program of premieres and Aussie works on 6 September in Paddington featuring works by Ross Edwards, Stephen Leek, Amber Evans, Margaret Tesch-Muller, Anne Levitsky, Josephine Gibson, Andrew Firth and John Rotar (who also conducts the performance).

Elena Kats-Chernin. Photo © Jacintha Nolte

Brisbane Festival brings William Yang’s Milestone to the Sunshine State on 9 September. It features music from Elena Kats-Chernin to be performed live by Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra. Then, on 13 September, Melody Eötvös‘s new work – a graduation processional for her alma mater, Griffith University – has its world premiere.

Also from Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra this month (from 11–13 September, part of the Brisbane Festival) is Your Eternal Memories. On the menu will be local composer Cameron Patrick‘s Little Corellas.

Also in the Brisbane Festival program (on 14 September), violinist Véronique Serret sings offerings to the natural world in Migrating Bird. William Barton joins this intimate experience, bringing the haunting sounds of the yidaki/didgeridoo.

It’s a jam-packed two days for Ensemble Q across 27–28 September: its one-day Soundscapes & Stories festival features works by Joe Twist, Melody Eötvös, Wilfred Lehmann and Sarah Hopkins, along with two new works by yet-to-be-announced emerging composers; Eötvös’s Once to Find gets a repeat performance on the following day at Elm House.

South Australia

A “very personal program” from dear friends oboist Diana Doherty and pianist Bernadette Harvey at UKARIA on 7 September features Tim Dargaville‘s In the Spirit House and the world premiere of Nigel Westlake‘s Three Pieces for Oboe and Piano, both written for the duo.

Aaron Wyatt. Photo © Jessica Bader

New York-based Australian composer Jack Frerer‘s Zoom for wind ensemble gets an airing with the Elder Conservatorium Wind Orchestra in a lunchtime concert on 12 September. South Australian composer Mark Simeon Ferguson’s Live and Die With the Butterflies features in an Elder Conservatorium concert later that evening (Crossing the Great Divide) alongside a brand new work from Adelaide-based composer Jackson Mack and Matthew Shlomowitz’s  Five Monuments for Our Time.

A recital by clarinettist Gordon Richter on 17 September at the North Adelaide Baptist Church Hall features Anne Cawrse‘s Ruby.

The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra brings Aaron Wyatt‘s First String Quartet, Under the Canopy, to UKARIA in its world premiere season on 21 September in a program that also airs Paul Stanhope‘s Agnus Dei (after the fire).

Also on 21 September, Chamber Music Adelaide presents a concert of new chanber music from singer-songwriter Nathan May with violinist Julian Ferraretto and the Adelaide Baroque String Quartet.

An Elder After Hours concert on 24 September by the in-house Ensemble Lumen offers Carl Vine‘s Sonata for Flute and Piano.

Further afield, out Mount Gambier way at the Tantanoola Caves on 14 September, sound artist, acoustic ecologist and field recordist Vicki Hallett invites audiences to a unique sonic experience – a live clarinet performance, composed in response to the cave itself.

Tasmania

On 2 September, Van Diemen’s Band Composer-in-Residence Quin Thomson directs a program of music for vocal ensemble that also features the world premiere of their own man, disarmed.

In the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s fantasy-infused Fairy Tales on 11 September, Richard Mills conducts the world premiere of his own double bass concerto Fantastic Bestiary with Principal Double Bass Stuart Thomson.

Victoria

Across 3–5 September, Rubiks Collective takes Kate Neal‘s quirky A Book of Hours to Melbourne and Bendigo.

Dominic Flynn. Photo © Saxon Hornett

At Tempo Rubato, pianist-composer Rob Hao kicks off the month on 4 September with Dominic Flynn‘s The Delacourt Bucket.

Anusha Yellapragada launches her Snapshot EP with performancesof her works Spring and Sprout at Monash Unversity Music Auditorium on 4 September. Featuring Ellipsis Trio and WHACKollective, the night also features Robert Davidson‘s Lost in Light.

Here’s another smattering of recitals from Australian National Academy of Music students in early September – violist Mattea Osenk debuts Jane Sheldon‘s talking with herself alone (9 Sep) and trumpeter Elizabeth Dawson premieres John Carmichael’s piece named for her (9 Sep). With repetoire to be confirmed for recitals later in the month, the list’s bound to get a bit longer soon.

The Gryphon Baryton Trio takes to Tempo Rubato on 12 September for music by Haydn and Burgsksteiner, as well as two world premiere works – one from Brooke Green, and one from performers Laura Vaughan and Katie Yap.

Aaron Wyatt‘s First String Quartet, entitle Under the Canopy, gets its world premiere at Wesley of Warragul on 19 September with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.

Seraphim, a short flute quartet work by Gordon Kerry, is picked up by the Blind Creek Ensemble in two performances across 20 & 21 September at Ferntree Gully and Belgrave.

Pianist Timothy Young of Ensemble Liason a performance of his second composition Distant Waters with the ensemble at Melbourne Recital Centre on 22 September.

Arcadia Winds performs the works of rising Australian graduate composers in Australian Voices at the Ian Potter Southbank Centre on 24 September. On the program is the world premiere of Zinia Chan‘s When We Are, her work for the Australian Music Centre’s MOMENTUM II Commission, alongside works by Leah Blankendaal, Lewis Ingham, Sam Williams, Martin Mackerras and Alon Trigger.

Wrapping up the month, Quartz performs Richard Meale‘s Cantilena Pacifica from his Second String Quartet on 30 September.

Western Australia

More Aaron Wyatt? You got it. His Cirrus opens the final chamber music concert from West Australian Symphony Orchestra on 14 September at the Government House Ballroom.

Perth’s Voyces present Vista on 20 September at the WA Museum. Joe Twist‘s Timeless Land: An Australian Song Cycle sees its Australian premiere, and Luke Byrne’s Where Sails Once Flew and Desert Sea both get a performance too.