Cast your vote for the best classical album review from these budding music writers at the Sydney Con.

Limelight editor Francis Merson recently gave a lecture at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for students interested in developing their skills in music criticism. He assigned them a CD to review: Quintopia, the sparkling second album from the New Sydney Wind Quintet, whose five members all teach at the Con.

We’ve made the submissions available to read online in the pages that follow, and we’re inviting Limelight readers to vote for the best of the 14 reviews (published anonymously). We’ll reveal the People’s Choice review on Friday, October 28, and the winning student will receive a year’s subscription to Limelight!

Read the reviews and cast your vote here. Listen to a track from Quintopia by clicking the “play” button below.

Grainger Lisbon
from the album Quintopia
New Sydney Wind Quintet

Review 1

★★★★

The New Sydney Wind Quintet’s latest release Quintopia is aptly titled, given the group’s uncanny ability to evoke other locales. Their renditions of works by Ravel, Nielsen, Grainger, and Australian composer Lyle Chan, all played with clarity and verve, bring forth the composers’ inspirations and sources, with a lively energy that grabs the listener’s attention.

On their...