Over 110 students joined Richard Gill and Karen Carey for the pilot year of the new education initiative.

The inaugural Limelight Australian Composition Seminar, founded by Limelight publisher and composer Andrew Batt-Rawden and two of the nation’s most cherished music educationalists, conductor Richard Gill, and Karen Carey, held at Santa Sabina College in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield, saw over 110 students from across Australia learning to become the next generation of Australian composers. The unique education initiative, spearheaded by Limelight magazine, is aimed at school students who are either looking to advance their music learning, or who are preparing for HSC examinations.

The students, from school years 8 – 11 from across Sydney and as far afield as Cairns, had the opportunity to study five new works, specially commissioned for the event, by acclaimed emerging Australian composers Alex Pozniak, Holly Harrison, Anastasia Pahos, Andrew Batt-Rawden and Nick Vines. In addition to the professional compositions, 36 students also provided short pieces they had composed to be workshopped and recorded during the day under the direction of Richard Gill. On hand to perform were Australia’s foremost contemporary music group, Ensemble Offspring, ARIA Award-winning composer and pianist Sally Whitwell, and the...