This week’s cover image is by American artist and renowned synaesthete Georgia O’Keeffe, the perfect illustration for our lead feature, Seeing Sound.

Limelight’s Jansson J. Antmann delves into the unique and beautiful world of synaesthesia, a neurodiversity experienced by around 4 percent of people, in which stimulation of one sense involuntarily triggers another. A synaesthete musician may “hear” colour; a synaesthete painter may “see” pitch, tone and harmonies.

The October 2025 cover features Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1918 painting Music – Pink and Blue No. 1. Image: Album/Alamy. Permission of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe.

Antmann speaks with Macquarie University’s Professor Anina Rich – Australian Research Council Future Fellow with the School of Psychological Sciences and the MQ Performance and Expertise Research Centre – who has spent years investigating this remarkable ability, one shared by a number of leading composers, musicians and visual artists. Composer Alice Chance, oboist Celia Craig, Canberra Symphony Orchestra’s Chief Conductor Jessica Cottis and CSO subscriber Shirley Allen also share their synaesthetic experiences.

That sense of pushing boundaries continues with British pianist Nicholas McCarthy. Born without a right hand, McCarthy has forged an international career championing the left-hand-alone repertoire. Ahead of his performances with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, he tells Elissa Blake about the challenges (and joys) of this repertoire – and why audiences have come to expect a touch of unorthodox piano-stool gymnastics in his concerts.

British pianistic brilliance is a theme this month, with Benjamin Grosvenor also in the spotlight. Once a child prodigy, Grosvenor made headlines in 2011 when he signed with Decca, becoming the label’s first UK pianist in almost 60 years. He reflects with our London-based editor-at-large Clive Paget on how his artistry has evolved since his BBC Proms debut at age 11, and what Australian audiences can expect on his upcoming tour.

From the concert stage to the theatre, arts writer Steve Dow meets actor and writer Kate Mulvany as she prepares to premiere her own adaptation of the classic Australian novel The Shiralee for Sydney Theatre Company. In their conversation, Mulvany revisits her long hospital stays as a child, considers how they shaped her life and work, and reveals what drives her as one of the country’s most prominent actor-writers.

Homecomings are another thread this issue. London-based baritone Morgan Pearse returns to Australia for several months and tells Shamistha de Soysa about his plans – among them, singing Mercutio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette for State Opera South Australia – as well as enjoying some downtime “being a bit of a lad.”

Dance lovers can look forward to Sydney Dance Company’s latest triple bill, Continuum, which premieres this month. Among its highlights is a significant new collaboration between Stephen Page, William Barton and Omega Ensemble. Jane Albert speaks with the creative team to uncover how this groundbreaking project came together.

Elsewhere, soprano Ria Andriani takes us inside her work as co-curator of a BackStage Music concert that brings together artists with and without disability, while composer Laura Murphy reflects on the rare revival of her Romeo and Juliet-inspired musical The Lovers, and what it means for the future of Australian musicals.

Our regular columns are equally rich. In Playing Up, we meet the astonishing guitarist Xuefei Yang, who shares her new album of Erik Satie arrangements.

World Premiere focuses on Rrawun Maymuru and Nick Wales’s new work for the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, featuring live singing in the Yolŋu language. October’s My Music spot belongs to Michael Sterzinger, CEO of Queensland Symphony Orchestra, who traces his journey from a Bavarian childhood and tuba playing to the top ranks of orchestra management. And in his monthly round-up, Clive Paget highlights a gripping new opera by Jake Heggie, music dramas by Handel and Bantock, Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s latest release and a luminous new symphony by Mark Isaacs.

Our film review takes us to the high Alpine country of northern Italy in Vermiglio, an austere yet arresting drama set during World War II.

Finally, from atop his Soapbox, Guy Noble muses on operatic curtain calls that seem to be getting longer … and longer … and longer.

As always, Limelight brings you a wealth of features, reviews and recommendations – everything you need to navigate this month’s must-hear music and must-see performing arts experiences.

If you’re not a subscriber … well, you should be!

The October 2025 issue will be available online from Monday 22 September. Subscribe to Limelight by Sunday 14 September, 11:59pm AEST to receive the print edition as soon as it’s available.

Purchase or renew an annual subscription between 25 August – 19 October for your chance to win a 2025/26 Palace Opera & Ballet cinema season pass. Learn more.