Nigel Westlake was born in 1958 into a musical family. His father, Donald Westlake, was principal clarinettist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (1961–1979), and his mother, Heather Westlake (nee Sumner) played the violin with several orchestras, including the Australian Chamber Orchestra in the 1980s.
Westlake began his musical career as a clarinettist, leaving school at the age of 16 to pursue the study and performance of music. For four years, he studied intensively with his father, practising the clarinet eight hours a day.
“When I was born, my father was playing with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and I was in Perth with my mother,” Westlake tells me. “One of my earliest memories is hearing, through the bedroom wall, the sound of my mother practising the violin.”
This commitment to music was present in their family life through rigorous practice schedules, and one Westlake continues to demonstrate in his professional life as not just a musician, but also as a conductor and composer. In 1983, he studied bass clarinet and composition in the Netherlands; a year later, he was appointed composer-in-residence for ABC Radio National. Notable films scored by Westlake include Babe, Miss Potter, Antarctica and Blueback.
“It changed the way I hear music. I moved from thinking about music as a science or as a tool, to a vessel for love, a path towards human connection.”
In 2008, Westlake’s son, Eli, was killed at the age of 21. This tragedy affected Westlake’s life immensely.
“The process of losing Eli changed so many things about the way I approached life,” he says. “We were surrounded by such an overwhelming outpouring of empathy from friends and family in our grief and it showed me the extent of people’s capacity for love. It changed the way I hear music. I moved from thinking about music as a science or as a tool, to a vessel for love, a path towards human connection.”
Ascension, the new work commissioned for the ACO, is a composition borne out of mourning, remembrance and love. Dedicated to the memory of Heather Westlake, who died just before Westlake received the commission, it takes inspiration from Vaughan Williams’ beloved The Lark Ascending, which was in turn influenced by the George Meredith poem of the same title.
“In her final days, my mother often requested The Lark Ascending to be played in her hospital room,” Westlake recalls. “Visitors would come and we would all sit around her bed, listening to the music.”
“My mother had herself played this piece on the violin, and it was one of the final pieces of music we listened to together before her death at the age of 95. This music became a touchstone, representing a flight of the spirit, heralding the readiness for the soul to ascend.” He says it was played it at her funeral, and became even more significant this way.
“Reflecting on Heather’s life and career during the composition process, I found myself revisiting the gentle warmth and skyward rising melodies of The Lark Ascending, secretly hoping some of its glorious magic might leave a faint fingerprint on the score,” he says. “When I started the writing process, my intention was never to quote from the music or the poem, but to try to capture and create a spiritual event within a sound world that would somehow enshrine and celebrate who my mother was. I wanted to bring her presence into being for the fleeting moment that the music was being played, to try to capture elements of her personality: her tenderness, her unconditional love, her sense of commitment to music and to life, her sweetness and warmth, her unforced nature and the gravitas of her personality.”
“This music became a touchstone, representing a flight of the spirit, heralding the readiness for the soul to ascend. We played it at her funeral, and the work became even more significant this way.”
“I had this list in front of me, and it was impossible to live up to it. Everything I wrote was never good enough. How could I possibly write music that encapsulated the magnitude of who she had been? Eventually I put the list away, replaced it with a photograph of Mum, and tried to write a piece that reflected her relationship with music, that somehow brought her to life in music.
“I wanted to create something that could communicate, in a deceptively simple way, a sense of a life’s narrative, of a life’s unfolding. I wanted a kind of musical embrace present throughout, and for it to showcase my mother’s energy and vibrancy, even throughout times of struggle.”
Westlake speaks of an enduring memory of Heather, when she once said, “All music must be beautiful.” He often reflects on that moment and wonders what she meant. “For me, it’s about being emotionally honest, of being true to yourself, your art form and your audience. I think of Ascension as the musical equivalent of an incense ceremony, where the spirit is granted permission to rise, dissipate, and become one with the world.”
Eileen Chong is a Singapore-born Australian poet of Hakka, Hokkien and Peranakan descent. She is the author of 11 books. Her latest full-length poetry collection is We Speak of Flowers (UQP, 2025). She lives and works on unceded Gadigal land of the Eora Nation.
Hear Ascension in Abel Selaocoe, touring to Touring to Wollongong, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide, 3-15 April. Click here to buy tickets.
Photos: Simon Westlake
