Emily Granger is principal harp with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, a position she has held since 2023. A Thing of Beauty is Granger’s seventh album, and in keeping with her reputation for championing contemporary repertoire, consists entirely of compositions by 12 living Australian composers at various career stages.

It takes its name from the opening work, commissioned by Granger from Adelaide-based composer and cellist Hilary Kleinig, which somehow perfectly balances wistful introspection with gentle but irresistible propulsion and a melody to die for.

A Thing of Beauty made “everything click”, says Granger, consolidating her vision for an album that “is an invitation to pause” and “return to what matters most in times like these: simplicity, stillness, and unapologetic beauty”. These 16 works include a specially commissioned suite for harp (Alice Chance) and Granger’s own very successful transcriptions of piano works by Elena Kats-Chernin, Sally Greenaway and Sarah Elise Thompson.

Other works take inspiration from landscapes (Christina Sonnemann Baehr, Margaret Tesch-Muller), poetry (Anne Cawrse) and musical memory (Ulpia Erdos), while compositions by Tara Minton, Nat Bartsch and Katy Abbott were written...