The ways in which music connects with place, history, community and personal stories is the stuff of Limelight’s April issue. From site-specific bell works in Canberra to the enduring power of Mahler and the homecoming of a major Australian soprano, this edition reflects the many ways music resonates beyond the concert hall.

We begin with a fascinating initiative at this year’s Canberra International Music Festival, where Artistic Director Eugene Ughetti continues to shape the event’s evolving identity in his second year at the helm. A series of site-specific works involving bells forms the centrepiece of the festival’s programming. Ughetti’s own work, Bell Curve, composed for Victoria’s Federation Handbells, launches a long-term artistic project that will unfold over several years and multiple locations. As Jansson J. Antmann discovers in our cover feature, these projects invite audiences to think about bells not simply as instruments but as carriers of cultural memory, sounding across landscapes and histories.

From site-specific music to the symphonic canon, this month we also turn our attention to one of the most thrilling curtain-raisers in orchestral repertoire: Mahler’s First Symphony, the Titan. Today, it’s beloved for its dramatic contrasts, yet when Mahler first unveiled the work, audiences and critics were baffled by its eccentricity. In this issue, Clive Paget revisits the symphony’s turbulent early reception and speaks with conductor Kahchun Wong, as he prepares to lead it with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. 

After two decades in the UK, Australian soprano Helena Dix has returned home, bringing with her a formidable international career and a schedule that shows no sign of slowing. In conversation with Harriet Cunningham, Dix reflects on the realities of a life in opera, the exhilaration of performing at the highest level and her frustration with the familiar lament that the “golden age” of singing is somehow behind us.

Also this month, Clive Paget sits down with one of the most recognisable voices in popular music. When Sting’s musical The Last Ship arrives in Brisbane, the singer-songwriter will not only be its composer and lyricist but will also take on a leading role on stage. The work draws deeply on his childhood in the shipbuilding community of Wallsend in northeast England, capturing the emotional upheaval that accompanied the closure of its shipyards. As Sting tells us, the songs seemed to pour out of him in a sudden rush of inspiration – a project that, in its scale and ambition, he describes as almost operatic.

Opera itself comes under lively scrutiny in our extract from Caitlin Vincent’s new book Opera Wars, which takes a sharp, witty look at the art form and the battles shaping its future. Drawing on conversations with composers and insiders, Vincent explores the anxieties that still surround contemporary opera – and the creative possibilities that lie beyond them.

Elsewhere in the issue, we pose Five Questions for the rising Leonkoro Quartet as its members prepare for their debut Australian tour, and composer Andrew Aronowicz introduces his imaginative new orchestral work for Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, The Erl-King, inspired by Angela Carter’s darkly fantastical retelling of the Erl-King legend in her short story The Bloody Chamber. 

Our Cutting Edge column examines Luminescence Chamber Singers’ ambitious new project blending voices and electronics, which premieres at the Canberra International Music Festival, while My Music finds beloved comedian Denise Scott reflecting on the role music has played in her life, particularly following her recent cancer diagnosis and recovery.

In Playing Up, principal trombonist Jörgen van Rijen traces the path that took him from a childhood dream to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra as he prepares to perform with Queensland Symphony Orchestra, and musical director Guy Simpson shares his insights into the extraordinary craft behind The Phantom of the Opera as it returns to Sydney Harbour in a chat with Limelight Print Editor Jo Litson.

And in his regular Soapbox column, Guy Noble takes aim at some of the most toxic males who populate our opera stories – and suggests some rewrites.

April’s In the Limelight is your chance to catch up with all the recent news in the sector (and it’s been a busy month), and of course we have our in-depth survey of the the must-see, must-hear concerts, shows and recordings, curated by our expert team.

The April 2026 issue of Limelight will be available online from Monday 23 March. Subscribe to Limelight by Sunday 15 March, 11:59pm AEDT to receive the print edition as soon as it’s available.