When Sydney Conservatorium of Music celebrated its centenary eight years ago it set up its Composing Women project in a move to abolish the glass ceiling and address the gender imbalance in contemporary classical composition.

Led by celebrated Perth-born composer Liza Lim since 2018, it has achieved striking success with four chamber operas produced in Sydney, as well as multiple collaborations with some of Australia’s leading orchestras and choirs.

Rachael Lin performs composer Bree van Reyk Redaction Antiphon in Composing Women, Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Photo © Stefanie Zingsheim.

By way of celebration Lim and the Con staged a concert showcasing works by five composing women – Brenda Gifford, May Lyon, Fiona Hill, Jane Sheldon and Bree van Reyk – performed by the current Fellows of Sydney Symphony Orchestra and guests under the baton of Roger Benedict, the SSO’s former Principal Viola, before an enthusiastic audience of around 200 people.

Gifford’s Birds, for string quartet, piano and percussion, was written in 2020 as a larger work for Sydney Dance Company choreographer Joel Bray and is based on his experience in NSW’s Wiradjuri country watching some finches “dancing” with each other in the...