This event was very much a labour of love, the culmination of the re-discovery of the music of Viennese-born, English educated, Hellgart Mahler, great niece of composer Gustav Mahler (1860–1911).

Hellgart and her family moved to Tasmania in 1958. An early influence in Tasmania was Ian Cugley (1945–2010), composer and tutor at the Tasmanian Conservatorium of Music, whose brilliant mind impressed her.

Hellgart lived on into old age in Devonport writing music in relative isolation, though there were occasional performances overseas and championship in Australia by renowned musicians Geoffrey Tozer and Jan Sedivka.

In 2021, young Tasmanian composer Dominic Flynn was able to make contact with and meet the 90-year-old Hellgart in Devonport. He was given access to her scores and arranged performances of her work in Hobart. This concert was the climax of those efforts with the assistance of Hellgart’s son, Adrian.

Hellgart Mahler died on 28 November 2023. While it was clear that she was in many ways very private and, for example, disliked photographs of herself being published, friends who attended this concert also described a vibrant, outgoing side to her personality.

Hellgart Mahler’s music was always highly original and resists precise classification as would seem to have been what she...