Liam Heitmann-Ryce-LeMercier

Newspaper Editor | TEDx Speaker | Classical Music Critic

Australia

Highly skilled interviewer, columnist, and public speaker with work experience across Australia, Germany, the US, and the UK. Diverse body of content for print and digital since 2010, with strong focus on classical music and LGBTQ+ voices.

Interview subjects include authors, composers, comedians, and filmmakers, providing written features that are compelling, insightful, and wholly original.

I am also the Editor of the North & West Melbourne News, a quarterly-printed community newspaper.

I am always open to collaborations and freelance assignments. If you feel yours is a story worth sharing, please contact me via email: liamhrl.96@gmail.com

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Portfolio

Showcase Pieces

The Monthly
03/31/2025
Heart of Glass: Listening to Philip Glass

Philip Glass's reputation precedes him - you've heard of him, even if you haven't heard his music. He has been an eminent composer for more than 60 years, yet popular culture still lampoons his early years as a prominent proponent of minimalism.

The Age - Published in Melbourne Since 1854

Programme Notes and Classical Music Writing

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
08/15/2025
In Conversation: Li-Wei Qin on Haydn’s Cello Concerto

For the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s "Musette" concerts, Li-Wei returns to the independent ensemble for a glorious showcase exploring the emotional and textural ranges of the cello — and why it’s held such an alluring mystique for so long.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
08/14/2025
Meet the MCO: Double Bassist, Emma Sullivan

The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra’s double bass player Emma Sullivan is usually seated at the back of the ensemble (or to the very right-hand side) when performing onstage, but there is nothing about this highly experience musician to put her in the back of anyone’s mind.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
07/09/2025
In Conversation: Aura Go on Composer Doreen Carwithen

Concert pianist, scholar, and leading advocate of new music in Australia and beyond, Aura Go returns to Melbourne Chamber Orchestra for a thrilling recital of a scarcely heard work by British composer Doreen Carwithen.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
04/30/2025
In Conversation: Richard Mills AO on Composing for MCO

Celebrated conductor and composer Richard Mills generously responds to an invitation from the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra with a new work for strings, based on four key episodes in the life of Mary, the Blessed Virgin.

Adelaide Symphony Orchestra
04/04/2025
Symphony Series #2: "Devotion"

Long-form programme notes for the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's "Devotion" concert, performing Brahms, Wennäkoski and Elgar

ABC Classic
03/25/2025
MCO: "Daybreak" - ABC Lunchtime Concert

The Melbourne Chamber Orchestra present a unique program featuring music of Mozart, George Walker and a world premiere by Matt Laing. Featuring interview with soloist David Griffiths.

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
03/06/2025
2025 Season: In Conversation with Artistic Director Sophie Rowell

With a new work from the MCO’s own Matt Laing, receiving its premiere performance in season-opening concert Daybreak, to a showcase of composers from across the globe, Sophie is bringing the MCO into a new year with much verve and vibrancy.

Western Australian Charity Orchestra
07/12/2023
Planet Earth: Our World in Music

Digital copy of "Planet Earth: Our World in Music" concert programme notes for the Western Australian Charity Orchestra

scenestr - Live Music Reviews and Features

Scenestr
09/04/2025
Review: 'Mahlerfest' by Australian World Orchestra

For a composer as earth-shattering and heaven-splitting as Gustav Mahler, the Australian World Orchestra’s three-hour extravaganza presentation of the German composer’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies proved a fittingly titanic affair.

Scenestr
09/01/2025
Review: Jaws in Concert @ Arts Centre Melbourne

‘Jaws’ is one of those films to have earned the distinction of becoming so impossibly well-known that one has the impression of having essentially seen it already, even if only through decades of brief glances on Saturday afternoon TV or countless YouTube top-10 lists.

Limelight - Australian Arts & Culture

Australian Design Review

Australian Design Review
05/26/2025
Matiya Marovich believes great architecture can exist anywhere

Matiya Marovich, founder of Adelaide-based architecture firm Sans-Arc, will be judging the 2025 Interior Design Excellence Awards, alongside Andrew Glover, Conrad Lowry, Jade Whittaker, Melissa Leung and jury chair Paul Hecker.

INTERVIEW: Video Game Composers

Retro Gamer
10/24/2025
007: Nightfire with Composer Jeff Tymoschuk

The late-90s and early 2000s were the golden years of 007 video games. At the centre of it all is the much-loved 2002 release Nightfire. Jeff Tymoschuk keenly pays homage to the series’ iconic music with his own reference-laden soundtrack.

Retro Gamer
08/28/2025
Music Memories: Dead Space with Composer Jason Graves

Setting the standard for modern survival horror games in 2008, the first Dead Space entry walked so that spiritual successors like Alien: Isolation could run. We speak to composer Jason Graves and learn how his tense, anxious score crafted the perfect atmosphere of stress and fear.

Retro Gamer
06/23/2025
Music Memories: Banjo Kazooie with Composer Grant Kirkhope

As early mascots of the Nintendo 64, Banjo the fist-swinging bear and Kazooie the egg-shooting breegull were heralded as British developer Rare’s answer to Super Mario 64. Nearly 30 years on, we speak to series composer Grant Kirkhope for his memories of working on the acclaimed platformer.

Retro Gamer
05/19/2025
Hitman at 25, with Series Composer Jesper Kyd

Since its late-2000 release exclusively for PC, Hitman: Codename 47 spawned a franchise which rode the golden age of sixth-gen consoles. With eight mainline titles, and two film adaptations, we go back to where it all started with original series composer Jesper Kyd.

Retro Gamer
04/22/2025
God of War 20th Anniversary: Composer Gerard K. Marino

In addition to being a best-selling PS2 game, God of War is also remembered for its environment-orientated score, adapting to player movements in a fashion rarely seen in games at the time. Composer Gerard K Marino celebrates its 20th anniversary.

Retro Gamer
04/10/2025
Music Memories: GoldenEye N64 with Composer Grant Kirkhope

Selling eight million copies, GoldenEye N64 was the title that helped Nintendo keep pace with its biggest rival – Sony’s PlayStation. Today, it lives on as the game that invented the modern first-person shooter.

INTERVIEW: Film Composers

CutCommon | the new generation of classical music
11/22/2024
"Baby's Day Out" at 30: Interview with Oscar-nominated composer Bruce Broughton

Every film, even those written off at release, is the result of at least some care and effort. In fact, many 'forgotten' films stand the test of time, and are well worth revisiting. Celebrating its 30 th birthday this year, one such film is the underrated children's comedy Baby's Day Out.

CutCommon | the new generation of classical music
01/30/2021
Could your favourite film score have been composed by your local councillor?

Artists can undergo an entire evolutionary cycle of job roles throughout the course of their film career, in front of and behind the camera. As in the case of Australian composer Christopher Gordon, music makers might dip their toes into completely different waters, too.

CutCommon | the new generation of classical music
01/14/2021
Film composer Antony Partos discusses his life in Australian music

It was on an aeroplane in June, 2010 that I first heard the music of Antony Partos. I was 13, flying from the United Kingdom back home to Western Australia with my older brother to spend the summer holiday with our dad.

Prism & Pen
11/21/2020
Hey, Barracuda! Queer TV in Australia, with Composer Bryony Marks

AUSTRALIA, BOTH AS COUNTRY AND CONCEPT, is something of a paradox. An enormous sunburnt landmass dumped at the bottom of the planet, a million miles from anything else, one would be forgiven for presuming the disconnected nature of its inhabitants.

Beat Magazine - Reviews & Opinion

Beat Magazine
11/26/2024
Brat, again? Come on, gays, we can do better than that

And so they wiggle their asses, with much gay abandon beneath the strobe lights. "Brat" just came on. What a sight, these queer friends of mine, their heads raised skyward and shrieking from the height of their little sparkly lungs.

INTERVIEW: Artists & Creatives

STUN Magazine - Queer Culture and Community
06/02/2025
Rising queer pop star THORNE drops some honey

Queer pop star on the rise THORNE drops new single "Honey" - and, girl, is it sweet. Barbados-born, Guyanese-Australian queer pop artist THORNE returns to their well-deserved place in the spotlight with sultry new single "Honey".

Western Australian Charity Orchestra
07/03/2023
Breath of the West: WA Oboist Leanne Glover on a Life in Music and Australian Arts

For Australian classical performer Leanne Glover, there are strong links between the musicality of the human voice and the oboe, the chosen instrument of her professional life in music. It is the ties between these two forms of expression which afford her an even deeper understanding of the music she plays onstage for a living.

Prism & Pen
02/18/2021
Hornet CEO Harnesses Purchasing Power of LGBTQ+ Community

The loudest voices and strongest changemakers often emerge from the sidelines. In their efforts to be recognised and represented, and by dint of their diminished population, minority groups are required to surmount far greater hardships than most.

FilmInk - Cinema News & Interviews

Public Speaking Videos

Delivered. - Deutsche Post DHL Global Customer Magazine

Berlin Stories

Prism & Pen
10/18/2022
I Met a Guy in a Gay Sauna in Berlin and Now I'm Going to Canada

I was asleep when he first saw me, passed out on a massage bed in the Ruheraum of the Boiler men's sauna. The room is no bigger than a train station Starbucks, housing two parallel rows of about ten beds, as seen through a glass wall allowing visitors to seek out a potential resting buddy.

Medium
06/23/2020
A Boy in Berlin: "Welcome Home, I Guess"

Arriving at Matt's apartment, Jonas realises his door is the same dark blue colour as Felix's, though this glossy coating far outshines the sun-scarred lacquer Jonas left behind this morning. Matt holds the door open, its surface reflecting onto Jonas the...

Medium
06/21/2020
A Boy in Berlin: The City as Orchestra Pit

The train rattles appallingly and the scream of its wheels pierce Jonas's ear drums. Jonas is coming down. There is no perfume of voices here, no confetti sentences, only sweat. Jonas is no longer buzzing. The drugs are not fun anymore.

Medium
06/19/2020
A Boy in Berlin: Sex, Drugs and Orange Juice

Jonas is buzzing. His fingertips sing with feeling, his feet are electric. The door crackles on his hand as it closes; he can feel the paint fizz in the canals of his fingerprints. Jonas is wired. He is dancing to the music in his head.