This concert marks the 70th birthday of our seventh Sir Thomas Elder Professor of Music, Charles Bodman Rae. The program features several of his own works alongside pieces by two significant composers with whom he had close personal associations, Olivier Messiaen and Witold Lutosławski. The performers – alongside the composer himself, as pianist – include several distinguished Australian musicians who have been his PhD students: the pianist Konstantin Shamray; the violinist Elizabeth Layton, the flautist Kathryn Moorhead; the violinist Madeline Melrose; the bassoonist Mark Gaydon (ASO); and the composer-pianist Joe Chindamo OAM. Three of the pieces incorporate Scottish themes, acknowledging his paternal highland heritage, and two of the pieces are inspired by the sounds of European bells.