There is something wonderfully appropriate about opening this September issue of Limelight with a feature about Jean Sibelius, a composer who continually reached beyond the familiar. He took the established form of the symphony and transformed it, stripping away convention to discover something more elemental and personal. His achievement reminds us that artistic tradition is never static; it survives because artists keep finding new ways to interrogate it.

Ahead of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Sibelius Cycle, Chief Conductor Mark Wigglesworth talks to Jansson J. Antmann about the Finnish composer’s radical spirit and the enduring power of his music.

Earlier this year, Harry Connick Jr. realised a long-held dream when he premiered a symphony dedicated to his late mother at Carnegie Hall with Jessica Gethin and Orchestra Victoria. In conversation with Limelight Editor Jo Litson, Connick reflects on what he describes as the most significant performance of his life, as well as the recording, book and documentary that have grown from the project.

This month we also look back 400 years to the death of John Dowland, whose music continues to exercise an extraordinary hold on the imagination. British countertenor Iestyn Davies talks to Limelight‘s London-based Editor-at-Large Clive Paget about the composer, lutenist, singer and spy whose melancholy music remains strangely contemporary, 400 years after his death.

Our dance coverage turns to an artist contemplating change of a very different kind. Twenty-five years after founding her company, Lucy Guerin is preparing for the next chapter of her career. In conversation with Jane Albert, she reflects on a professional journey that has included both extraordinary achievement and periods she describes as “quite tortuous”. Guerin’s decision to create and perform a solo as she steps away from her company is particularly poignant. It’s her first performance since 2013, and a return to one of the forms she once found so difficult.

Also in this issue, Bryce Dessner talks to Limelight writer Maddy Briggs about his work with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the peculiar exhilaration of playing with a large ensemble; Helen Thomson talks to Elissa Blake about playing the unnervingly charming Elsa Jean Krakowski in Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Unfriend, a character Thomson describes as “Mary Poppins – but scary”, and Caitlin Vincent takes us inside Victorian Opera and Monstrous Theatre’s ambitious new adaptation of Helen Garner’s The Spare Room.

Our regular columns take us from Steve Reich at 90 to a new work about mortality for Brisbane Festival by Queensland company The Farm, while the great cellist Pieter Wispelwey discusses an ambitious recital series with Piers Lane. Antmann also catches up with flautist Joshua Batty, whose Perfect Imperfections project is expanding the instrument’s repertoire through collaborations with artists including William Barton, Konstantin Shamray and Chroma Quartet.

And there’s plenty more music to discover as Dami Im reveals the influences behind her latest album, Stormy Weather, and sarod player Avra Banerjee explains why his instrument has become like a member of the family.

Our film and books reviews offer their own provocations, with Diana Simmonds reviewing the powerful documentary Silenced, which examines the weaponisation of defamation laws against survivors, and Antmann discussing Daniel Okrent’s new biography of Stephen Sondheim, Art Isn’t Easy, placing the Broadway giant’s life and work in its wider historical context.

In his monthly Soapbox column, Guy Noble recounts his visit to China and finds much to admire in the country’s musical culture, particularly at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, and of course, we have pages dedicated to the must-see and must-hear performances across Australia in September, as well as our in-depth survey of the latest in classical recordings and our guide to to best in classical music broadcasting and streaming.

In short, everything you need – enjoy!

The September 2026 issue of Limelight will be available online from Monday 24 August. Subscribe by Sunday 16 August, 11:59pm AEDT to receive the print edition as soon as it’s available.