This weekend, one of the most ambitious commissioning projects in Australian history will take over Melbourne’s Abbotsford Convent. The ANAM Set is a series of 67 works by Australian composers, who were commissioned to write a six- to eight-minute piece of music for each of the 67 musicians training at the Australian National Academy of Music in 2021.

This week, Limelight will feature the stories of five pairs of composers and performers, learning more about their work, their process of collaboration, and what they learned about themselves – and each other – through this process. Today we look at composer Kate Tempany and her piece Honeyeater, written for trumpeter and Nic Corkeron.

Composer Kate Tempany. Image supplied.

Composer Kate Tempany. Image supplied.

What does this project mean to you?

Regent Honeyeaters (a critically endangered bird endemic to southeastern Australia) are astonishing musicians, currently on a trajectory towards extinction. Composing Honeyeater with Nic was a way of grappling with the emotional reality of species loss.

The process of composition was very painful because to get to the truth of what I was trying to say, I had to sit with feelings of love and...