At its first concert for the year, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra announced its intention to feature women composers in its 2021 programming. It has established the Miriam Hyde Circle, named in honour of one of Australia’s finest composers, to ensure greater representation of women composers and to support current and future women composers. This ASO concert included celebrated Russian-born Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin’s scintillating orchestral work Big Rhap. It is to be hoped that the ASO’s initiative is well-supported and it would be great to see larger scale works by women, such as symphonies and concerti – of which there are numerous worthy examples – become feature items in ASO concerts.

Soprano Lauren Fagan and conductor Dane Lam in the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra’s Joyous Reminiscence. Photo © Claudio Raschella

The ASO has also introduced another initiative – in place of the traditional Welcome to Country given in person by Indigenous elders at important public events, the ASO has commissioned a musical acknowledgement, the Kaurna Acknowledgment of Country, Pudnanthi Padninthi (The Coming and the Going), composed by Kaurna Narungga men, Jack Buckskin and Jamie Goldsmith, in collaboration with Adelaide composer...