Limelight’s 2025 is coming to a close. The performing arts world keeps turning regardless, but year’s end always invites a moment of reflection amid the usual headlong rush of deadlines and breaking news.

Limelight celebrated its 250th issue this year, a not insignificant milestone. What began 49 years ago as a modest guide to the ABC’s classical-music programming has matured into a proudly independent national arts publication, offering readers across Australia a home for music, arts and culture.

In 2025, our small but dedicated team – together with a network of expert reviewers across the country – experienced the arts in full. Between our website and 11 print issues, we reviewed nearly 700 performances and created hundreds of feature and news pieces for our print and online editions. And as the way people read evolves, so do we – this year we introduced a new flipbook format to make reading our content digitally easier and more enjoyable.

Through it all, one theme underpinned our work: a renewed commitment to Australian music. Launched in 2025, our monthly Australian Accent column put a spotlight on the vibrant – and often under-represented – breadth of music being created by Australian composers. Our Guide to Australian Composers provided a doorway to the work of almost 500 artists, curated through the lens of Cameron Lam’s Australian Art Music Playlist. Together, they form a panorama of Australian creativity.

A few of the figures featuring in Limelight’s Year in Review

Limelight prides itself on its breadth of coverage, and in 2025 there was a lot to write about: the turbulence in the upper echelons of Opera Australia; the now-shelved plans to disestablish the ANU School of Music; the ongoing saga of pianist Jayson Gillham’s legal dispute with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; the discovery of “lost” works by JS Bach and Henry Purcell; the announcement that Franco Zeffirelli’s colossal production of Aida was coming to Adelaide – and then wasn’t.

There were significant appointments (Andrea Battistoni at Opera Australia; Leanne Stojmenov at WA Ballet; Dean Bryant at Malthouse; Iain Grandage at Melbourne Recital Centre, among them). There were international and Australian awards to report on and, sadly, a number of obituaries to write, marking the passing of some hugely significant figures internationally and locally – playwright Tom Stoppard; conductor Christoph von Dohnányi; veteran triple threat Toni Lamond; musical theatre star Ben Lewis; ACO founder and cellist John Painter; Australian dancers Colin Peasley and Garth Welch; producer Fiona Winning; opera singer Adele Johnson; and jazz legend Judy Bailey.

We believe that Limelight endures not simply because of the pages we publish, but because of the connections we’ve built. Over five decades, we’ve become one of the few remaining outlets offering national coverage of the performing arts. Our longevity rests on relationships – with artists, readers, collaborators – and on the shared conviction that arts journalism matters. The fact we’re still here, heading into our 50th year and still doing what we set out to do, is thanks to you.

And so we say: thank you. Thank you for turning the pages; for attending concerts small and grand; for reading thoughtfully; for showing up.

Meanwhile … back to the job! Over the festive break we’ll be publishing wraps of our most-read classical, opera, theatre and dance reviews, news and feature articles, more news and more features. Stayed tuned.

The Limelight team.

Discover more of Limelight‘s most-read stories of 2025 on the Year in Review page.