Who were the musicians who thrilled you most in 2017? The artists who raised your spirits and your pulse? Who turned in performances you will never forget? For the third year running, the Limelight critics put together a shortlist of 40 outstanding musicians and ensembles – 20 Australian and 20 international artists – who had particularly wowed them. We then invited you, our readers, to register your online vote. And what a starry line-up it was of musicians, opera singers, composers, conductors, directors and ensembles, ranging from the very established to relative newcomers. The full list is still available on our website. With our highest public vote to date, it was a close contest.

We can reveal that among the artists nominated for Australian Artist of the Year, Benjamin Northey, Asher Fisch, Erin Helyard, Elena Kats-Chernin and Piers Lane received a lot of love. (For these awards a non-Australian who leads an Australian orchestra or arts organisation has been counted as an Australian...