Summers Night is a mentoring program for women and non-binary composers developed by Cat Hope, Professor of Music at the Sir Zelman Cowan School of Music at Monash University and Artistic Director of Decibel New Music Ensemble, and pianist Dr Gabriella Smart, Artistic Director of Soundstream New Music. The project is presented by WA-based sonic art organisation Tura New Music with Monash University, and takes its name and inspiration from Dr Anne Summers, author of the pioneering history of women in Australia, Damned Whores and God’s Police (1975).

Composers Kate Milligan, Bree van Reyk, Frankie Dyson Reilly and Hilary Kleinig. Photo © Olivia Davies.

On International Women’s Day in 2017, Summers launched the Women’s Manifesto, a blueprint for the creation of equality for women in Australia that articulated clear goals required for real change. One of these was ‘the right to participate fully and equally in all areas of public life’, and Summers Night addresses this particularly. After being selected through a competitive open call, composers are supported by performance and composition mentors – who include composers Hope,...