Welcome to the September edition of Australian Accent, Limelight’s unashamedly 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

Harpist-composer Paul Nicolaou embarks on an Australian tour with Elemental Resonance – an all-Australian, multisensory solo program with works from Tristan Coelho, Nigel Westlake, Christopher Larkin, Ross Edwards, Andrew Schultz, Mary Doumany, Natalia Mann, Stuart Greenbaum and Nicolaou himself. Catch it in Melbourne (4 September & 5 September), Hobart (8 September), Sydney (12 September) and in Gosford on 19 September.

Jack Symonds. Photo supplied.

Michelangelo Buonarotti is best known as a sculptor and painter, yet this Renaissance polymath was also a first-rate poet. Inspired by Buonarotti’s profound thoughts about art, mortality, love and faith, three composers respond to his poetry, one of them being Jack Symonds in his Opera Queensland-commissioned In Stone, which he performs with bass-baritone Jeremy Kleeman at The Church, Alexandria, Sydney on 17 September and at Wesley Music Centre 20 September.

From 11 September, Luminescence Chamber Singers tours its Particles of Light program this month to venues in Canberra, Wollongong, Nowra and Sydney. You’ll hear works by Dan Walker, Elena Kats-Chernin, David Lang, Andrew Ford, Gareth Farr, Colin Bright, James Wade, Andree Greenwell and Nardi Simpson.

The Sydney Symphony Orchestra packs itself into a van (or two) for a tour of Music That Moves You – a program of music for – and inspired by – dance. Conductor in Residence Ben Northey leads the Orchestra in this program including high-energy works by Stravinsky, Kodály and Holly Harrison (her 2021 work Hi-Vis). Experience it on 25 and 26 September at Snow Concert Hall, Canberra and at Shoalhaven Entertainment Centre.

Australian Capital Territory

On 2 September the Wesley Lunchtime Concert series welcomes the return of Ben Hoadley (bassoon) and Ariana Odermatt (harpsichord) to play an eclectic program of music that spans the Baroque to Sally Whitwell.

Across 16–17 September, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra presents Psycho, which pairs Bernard Harmann’s score with a brand new CSO commission from composer Leah Curtis.

New South Wales

Hand to Earth. Photo © Oli Sansom

The Streeton Trio is playing regional NSW with a Musica Viva Australia program including Spirit and the Maiden by Elena Kats-Chernin. Armidale on 3 September, and the Jetty Theatre, Coffs Harbour on 4 September. Details here.

The Sydney Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Roger Benedict, presents a program of Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Pavel in the Verbrugghen Hall on 4 September. Opening the concert is the world premiere of a work by student composer Connor Dooley, Small Creatures with Great Wisdom.

Sydney Symphony Orchestra presents Mozart’s Requiem (9-12 September) with Stephen Layton conducting and a stellar quartet of leading Australian voices. Also on the program is John Rutter‘s Gloria.

Hand to Earth (HtE) is an independent quintet in which Yolŋu song keepers Daniel Wilfred and David Wilfred recontextualise their 40,000 year old song tradition in a contemporary setting with three of Australia’s most distinctive musicians, Sunny Kim (voice) Peter Knight (trumpet/electronics) and Aviva Endean (clarinet/electronics). Hear them in in this ACO: Up Close concert on 11 September in the ACO Nielson.

On 12 September, Ensemble Offspring move into the same venue for a celebratory concert celebrating Steve Reich’s 90th birthday. A program of Reich works opens with Richard Cilli and Claire Edwardes‘ Metronomes.

Alex Turley’s Syntax Error turns communication breakdowns between composer and performer into musical play. Hear it alongside works by Debussy and Mozart in this Australia Ensemble concert in the UNSW Sir John Clancy Auditorium on 12 September.

Now in its third edition, Sydney Chamber Choir’s Sessions on the Pier concert returns on 19 September to celebrate the beauty and rhythm of the changing year. In a diverse, genre-spanning program, titled Time & Tide, you’ll find a work by Australian composer Joe Twist – his On The Night Train.

The Sydney Conservatorium New Music Ensemble, conducted by Benjamin Northey, presents a concert of contemporary voices from home and abroad on 18 September, among them Liza Lim‘s Songs Found in a Dream and the premiere of a new work by SCM student composer Hayden Gardiner.

William Barton. Photo supplied

Also on 18 September, in the Mitchell Library Reading Room oif the State Library of NSW, composer and yidaki master William Barton presents Earth Flow, a work honouring the living systems of memory and interconnected knowledge, featuring Aunty Delmae Barton, Jack Thompson, Ray Martin and the Sydney Street Choir alongside guest musicians and performers.

On 25 September, again at the State Library of New South Wales, Skye McIntosh and musicians from the Australian Haydn Ensemble present an immersive mix of music and performed scenes to celebrate the life and work of the pioneering natural history illustrators Harriet and Helena Scott (read our interview with McIntosh here) . Alongside Beethoven and Marin Marais’ introspective Les Voix Humaines, you’ll also hear Elena Kats-Chernin‘s Butterflying and Tullia Cairns‘ Ripples and Reflections.

Sax player Nick Russoniello, violinist Julia Russoniello and guitarist Murilo Tanouye – AKA Trio Histoire – play The Concourse, Chatswood on 30 September. Music by Felicity Cox (Tambourin) and Nick Russoniello (Werri Dance II) features.

Queensland

Paul Stanhope. Portrait supplied

Queensland Symphony Orchestra’s Morning Masterworks and Maestro series continues on 4 September. Sandwiched between Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Debussy’s La Mer is Paul Stanhope‘s Ocean Planet, a reflection on the beauty and fragility of our oceans.

On 5 September, guitarist Angus Smith performs a program of works by Brisbane-based composers. The program includes el derecho al delirio (the right to delirium) by Charlene Cloud Tan.

On 25 and 26 September, QSO presents Symphonic Dances, a concert featuring the Queensland premiere of Holly Harrison’s Accordion Concerto, InsideOut, a high-voltage work that moves to its own beat.

South Australia

Pianist Kathryn Selby is on the road again, this time with cellist Julian Smiles and Susie Park on violin. The program, Bush, Borscht & Bonn, kicks off with Piano Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano by Ross Edwards. Catch Selby & Friends at Concordia College Chapel, Highgate on 6 September.

Tasmania

Bowerbird Collective. Photo supplied

Bowerbird Collective is performing its Where Song Began program in Launceston (5 September), Hobart (6 September) and Cygnet (9 September). Celebrating songbirds, the music spans 300 years, from Bach to Arvo Pärt. You’ll also hear works by David Lang, Ross Edwards and Chris Williams.

Joe Chindamo’s Trio Fantastique (2022) for for oboe, bassoon and piano opens the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra’s Dancing with the Wind concert in the Ian Potter Recital Hall on 26 September.

Victoria

Connor D’Netto. Photo supplied

Melbourne Recital Centre, Australian String Quartet & Binung Boorigan presents nyilamum song cycles on 2 September, the acclaimed concert intertwining ancient stories and music from Yorta Yorta Dja Dja Wurrung Dr Lou Bennett and Paul Stanhope.

On 3 September, MPavilion hosts Portraits, a collaboration between cellist Jack Overall and composer-producer Connor D’Netto. Alongside D’Netto’s Stolen Glances, the two will also perform the world premiere of Resisting The Urge To Sit In The Shower. Yep, we’ve all been there.

The Australian Ballet’s Bodytorque: Gravity platforms emerging Australian choreographers across 3–5 September; Serena Graham’s Möbiusfeatures a live score from Michael Grebla (you can also hear prerecorded music from May Lyon in Event Horizon).

You can hear Paul Stanhope‘s Apollo on 5 September, in a concert (In Full Flight) hosted by the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music in Hanson Dyer Hall, Southbank.

Harpist Katia Mestrovic performs a solo set for her project Aus Harp Fest at the Queen Victoria’s Women’s Centre on 5 September and Cheltenham Library on 20 September. On the program are works by Mary Doumany, Lisa Cheney, Natalia Mann, Nat Bartsch, Tara Minton, PauL Nicolaou and Mestrovic’s own Quattuor, Araneae.

Flinders Quartet is presenting its New Light program from 6-9 September. Each performance begins with a newly commissioned work by Naomi Dodds titled A Single Thread.

Max Kielly‘s ANAM Set composition, If I Saw You, earns its world premiere on 7 September with ANAM student and trumpeter Lewis Grey.

At La Mama Theatre across 8–12 September, Elissa Goodrich and Susan Bamford Caleo‘s multimedia work Pulse, drawing on works including Elgar’s Sea Pictures, takes the stage.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra heads to Daylesford this month. At Stanbridge Centre, Christ Church Daylesford
 on 11 September, MCO presents Stories Retold, which features Elena Kats-Chernin‘s Re-inventions. On 13 September, in Where Paths Meet, MCO then spotlights works by Kats-Chernin, Peter Sculthorpe (Night Song), Ella Macens (Resting with Angels), John Rodgers (Bird Suite) and Erkki Veltheim (Playford Maze). Details here.

ELISION Ensemble returns to Abbotsford Convent on 14 September with a program, 
Sorcerer,  a concert named after a Richard Barrett work that also includes Liza Lim‘s Magnificat. They play again on 18 September with a different program and another Liza Lim work, Inguz.

Clarinettist Bailey Hume and pianist Coady Green take to the stagew at Tempo Rubato on 17 September with a program including works by Stuart Greenbaum, Kate Tempany and Michael Kieran Harvey.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra presents Chamber Music for Strings on 20 September in the Iwaki Auditorium. On the bill alongside works by Caroline Shaw and Brahms, Wed by David Lang.

On 27 September,  the Elissa Goodrich Quartet showcases works from its upcoming Waves and Bubbles album, alongside its Gene Tree project. With jazz and classical influences, all works have been composers by bandleader Elissa Goodrich.

Western Australia

Australian Reverie (23 September at McCusker Recital Hall), is a trove of Australian music for piano and guitar from the past to the present day. Composers featured include Esther Rofe, Margaret Sutherland, Carl Vine, Miriam Hyde, Peter Sculthorpe, Elena Kats-Chernin and more.