High-flying go-getters need to be cautioned before reading this memoir. Michael Atherton’s boundless energy, enthusiasm, professional versatility and musical adventuring spring off the pages, leaving the reader humbled and maybe achievement-fatigued. In his long career, Atherton has been a composer, performer, music therapist, occasional poet, lecturer and head of faculty at Western Sydney University. 

He has also produced and contributed to countless CDs and authored seven books including the enjoyable and historically enlightening A Coveted Possession: The Rise and Fall of the Piano in Australia.

He is one of those maddeningly brilliant practitioners who not only plays multiple instruments but switches convincingly between different genres, including crossing the divide between classical and popular styles. As he says, “I don’t subscribe to dichotomies such as classical versus popular. Hard boundaries don’t exist. They are just stereotypes.”

His musical interests encompass rock ‘n’ roll, early music and folk. He has played with rock bands, cross-cultural groups Sirocco and Southern Crossings, and as one half of the electroacoustic duo SynC with Garth Paine. 

Never Miss a Beat is a detailed memoir with an honest and self-aware narrative, which moves along with an old-school chronological flow. The writing doesn’t...