You’d think that music would be a core essential on the curriculum of all Australian primary schools. Umpteen research reports have confirmed the enormous benefits of music education, particularly if children begin young. Literacy and numeracy improve when children study music, it helps memory, builds self-confidence and discipline, increases co-ordination, and encourages team play. What’s more, involvement with music is joyous and helps relaxation. And yet, according to Music Australia, as few as 23 percent of Australian state schools are able to provide an effective music education for their pupils, compared to 88 percent of schools in the private system.

Beloved Australian conductor Richard Gill has spent more than half a century fiercely lobbying for access to high quality music education for all children, both in his columns for Limelight and through initiatives such as the National Music Teacher Mentoring Program. Last month, the Muswellbrook Shire Council, in regional New South Wales, announced plans to open a new independent primary school, inspired by Richard’s vision and founded in partnership with him. With an independent board, chaired by Kim Williams, it is hoped that The Muswellbrook Richard Gill Music Academy will open its doors in 2020. In the first of a two-part piece, a deeply delighted Richard writes about the school in his column this month.

We also interview conductor Daniel Barenboim, another committed music educator, who tells Clive Paget: “I have never understood why children have to learn literature, geography, biology, mathematics and not music.” In November, Barenboim returns to Australia for the first time since 1970, when he brings the Skaatskapelle Berlin to the Sydney Opera House for three programs. Also this month we have a feature about the two Russian collectors who amassed an extraordinary collection of modern art, now held by the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, masterpieces from which are now at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. We talk to Frédéric Olivieri, Director of Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company, which makes its Australian debut in Brisbane next month, and exciting young American conductor Karina Canellakis, who is leading several of our state orchestras in the coming weeks. Enjoy!