Launceston Piano Anthology, Volume 1 is a collection of 18 pieces by 13 composers: pianists and non-pianists, experienced and first-timers, who are united by a love of the sounds of the piano and by a connection to this beautiful place at the head of the Kanamaluka river in Lutruwita/Tasmania, a place where people have gathered and made music for millennia. The Anthology opens with Paul Gray’s Tamar and finishes with Yyan Ng’s and Emily Sheppard’s River Islands: tributes to the remarkable country we are privileged to live upon.

The variety within the Anthology reflects the diversity of the contributors. Some pieces involve improvisation, some are fully notated, some have suggested AMEB grades, some you’d never get to include in an exam. Some are pretty easy; some are pretty difficult. There are graphic scores, jazz, ambient, neo-classical and prepared piano pieces. The book is organised very roughly by level of challenge.