The Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address has become appointment viewing in the Australian arts calendar, and each year the chosen speaker has challenged and inspired our industry, and the broader community, from Richard Gill’s plea for Australia to take music education seriously, Sunny Kim in praise of creative collaboration with Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian musicians, or Deborah Cheetham’s challenge to us all to incorporate Indigenous engagement in everything that we do, and not just as a box-ticking exercise.

(L-R) Bree van Reyk, Sia Ahmad (© Lightbulb Studio) and Zela Margossian will present the 2021 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address as a panel discussion.

In a change to the format, the 2021 address will instead be in the form of a livestreamed panel discussion by three artists: pianist and composer Zela Margossian, composer and percussionist Bree van Reyk, and singer, composer and improviser Sia Ahmad. The three artists were chosen for the breadth and depth of both their music and their careers, and they will explore issues of diversity, sustainability, and how arts practitioners can connect with each other and support each other’s work.

“In...