Canberra flautist Sally Walker has been nominated for Limelight magazine’s Artist of the Year this year – the only Canberra artist and the only wind player in the line-up.

Walker, who was a runner-up last year, is one of the busiest flute lecturers and instrumentalists in town and around Australia.

Our CityNews music reviewers have consistently her the thumbs up this year, not least for her March performance of Elena Kats-Chernin’s flute concerto Night and Now with the CSO, of which our reviewer Michael Wilson said: “It’s simply a delight to watch in performance, beginning in a solemn mood, the flute line almost independent of the orchestral scoring, serenading a textured and full sound from strings and woodwind.”

As part of the Canberra International Music Festival in May, Living Poems of the Sea saw Walker present a meditation on the world of dolphins and whales through music, sound, words and images, including video footage of Walker on the bow of a boat speeding through the waters of Port Stephens, NSW, playing the flute to a school of jumping dolphins.

Her August performance on flauto traverso with the Canberra Bach Ensemble at St Christopher’s Cathedral was described by Alanna Maclean as “particularly spectacular”.

Members of the public can now take part by voting for the 2025 Limelight Artists of the Year here until January 4.

The line-up of Australian finalists is as follows: William Barton, Nicole Car, Samantha Clarke, Umberto Clerici, Danielle de Niese, Madeleine Easton, Claire Edwardes, Asher Fisch, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Emily Granger, Erin Helyard, Elena Kats-Chernin, Andrea Lam, Rrawun Maymuru, Kathryn Selby, Jane Sheldon, Siobhan Stagg, Richard Tognetti, Sally Walker and Simone Young.