The enigmatic cover star of our May issue is the Minimoog model D synthesiser, one of the most influential electronic keyboard instruments in modern history. Appropriate, we thought, given that our cover story this month is devoted to one of the pivotal figures in electronic music, Wendy Carlos.

Carlos not only completely reshaped public perception of what classical music could be through the classic triple-Grammy winning 1968 album Switched-On Bach, but also brought an entirely new musical language to film with her haunting, synth-heavy scores for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, and the futuristic adventure classic Tron.

And who better than keyboardist and producer Will Gregory, founder of the Will Gregory Moog Ensemble, a group created in 2005 to perform Carlos’ Switched-on Bach arrangements, to talk about Carlos’ enduring musical and technological legacy?

Our big theatre story this month devoted to the multi-award-winning playwright Patricia Cornelius, whose allegorical drama Do Not Go Gentle is about to receive its mainstage premiere, courtesy of Sydney Theatre Company.

Set in an aged care home, the play is about people at the end of their life but, says Cornelius, “it’s also about living life well, about being more adventurous and not just valuing money and material gain. These are the things we too often forget in this country.”

In Sergei Rachmaninov: A Musical Janus, the great Australian pianist Stephen Hough discusses the Russian composer’s turbulent life and music with Limelight’s London-based Editor-at-Large Clive Paget.

With historian Roger Neill as their guide, readers can also delve deep into the lives and times of the Simonsen family of St Kilda, 12 members of which were professional singers, the most famous of them Frances Alda, who became a star of New York’s Metropolitan Opera alongside Caruso and Toscanini.

Yorta Yorta soprano, composer and educator Deborah Cheetham Fraillon shares her thoughts on the state of opera in Australia, and her plans to give young artists a much-needed confidence boost, in her new role as the inaugural Elizabeth Todd Chair of Vocal Studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

We also have a personal perspective from singer Kate Ceberano on a four-decade career that has spawned 30 albums, and in our regular Playing Up feature, you’ll learn everything you need to know – and probably more – about the cornetto, an instrument popular in the 15th and 16th centuries, from Matthew Manchester, one of its finest exponents.

This month’s Cutting Edge sees composer Elliot Gyger reveal why each movement of his new viola solo Solitaire follows a strict set of rules, and in this month’s Sacred Cow column, Limelight writer and reviewer Shamistha de Soysa unpacks the review star-rating system. Is it a shorthand way of delivering honest feedback, or a way to avoid in-depth analysis?

Atop his Soapbox once again, Limelight columnist Guy Noble takes aim at the Cate Blanchett-starring TÁR and the Irish movie The Banshees of Inisherin. While we’re talking film, we review the upcoming Liam Neeson vehicle Marlowe and the French drama One Fine Morning, starring Léa Seydoux.

As always, you can catch up on all the industry news, take in our recommended live performances to look out for around the country, and check out the highlights on ABC Classic and the nation’s independent radio stations.

Enjoy!

Subscribe to Limelight by Monday 17 April, 9am AEDT to receive the print edition as soon as it’s available and you could win a holiday for two to the Australian Festival of Chamber Music. Learn more.