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: [email protected]

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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

Concert Programme Notes

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

Melbourne Chamber Orchestra
04/02/2025
In Conversation: Aaron Wyatt on Composing for MCO

Perth-raised and Melbourne-based, First Nations conductor, composer, and violist Aaron Wyatt is dismantling conventional notions of the Australian landscape with his lush new work Under the Canopy.

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

LIMELIGHT - Australian Arts & Culture

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.

FilmInk - Cinema News & Interviews

FilmInk
03/27/2025
Duncan James and his Misgivings

The artist may have amassed plenty of misgivings in his 50+ years, but his female-led feature debut Misgivings isn't one of them.

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.

INTERVIEW: Artists and Creatives

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.

Queertopia
09/30/2020
Growing Up Gay, with BBC Journalist Simon O'Leary

The best way to get somebody to do something is by telling them they can't. Instruct a five-year-old to have only two of those chocolate chunk cookies on the table and you can be sure, the instant you leave the room to answer the door, the entire packet will have been devoured.

Public Speaking Videos

LGBTQ+ Writings

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
07/22/2020
Gay New World: I Came Out at 16, Over Email

In July 2005, my Mum married my stepdad, and in October we moved to England. My birth parents were never married and so this made our relocation a little bit easier. Being eight-years-old at the time, I didn't register what was going on and remember only saying something like Oh wow, that's Stonehenge

Medium
07/15/2020
Why I'm Still Self-Conscious About Kissing Guys in Public

I recently went on a date with a guy, my first since the world broke in March. After four months of isolation, I was delighted by the chance to flirt outrageously with the pretty, talkative person with whom I'd matched on Tinder.

Medium
05/25/2020
Fuck That: The Problem of Promiscuity in Queer Culture

If you are a man within the LGBTQ community, I propose that the image above is a fairly common sight. Getting a guy into your bed is as easy as opening up Grindr, pinging a "hey" to the first acceptably attractive face you find, and providing the necessary data.

Delivered. - Deutsche Post DHL Global Customer Magazine

Buffalo Market (San Francisco) - Organic Produce Supply and Delivery

Buffalo Market
04/19/2021
How to Run a Successful Organic Restaurant

The idea of buying organic produce once seemed a very novel idea, with few consumers prepared to pay the extra premium for higher-quality ingredients. But now buying organic has become one of the leading food trends of the past few years, with sales of organic food in the US exceeding $55,000,000 in 2019.

Buffalo Market
04/02/2021
These 12 Chain Restaurants are Saving the Planet with Plant-Based Menus

Supported the world over since its 2003 inception, Meatless Monday is a movement dedicated to reducing the consumption of meat, with benefits ranging from the personal to the global. With animal livestock accounting for almost 15% of greenhouse emissions worldwide, changing your diet really could change the world.

Buffalo Market
03/26/2021
Explained: Restaurant Slang and Food Service Terminology

Restaurants are fast-paced and challenging environments, with a countless number of issues that may arise at any moment: the quickest way to get a point across is with specific food service terminology. Communication is key, for a strong team that can work together is just as important as the food being served.

Buffalo Market
03/23/2021
What Every Restaurant Owner Needs to Know About COVID Relief Bill

One year after the COVID-19 outbreak was officially recognised as a pandemic, US President Joe Biden has signed the American Rescue Plan into law, with many businesses and restaurants set to benefit from this $1.9 trillion relief fund. A total of $28.6 bn will reportedly come to the aid of struggling restaurants.

Buffalo Market
03/15/2021
Creating Restaurant Menus to Maximize Your Turnover

With so many of them out of action in this pandemic, most restaurants are likely to be closed for business or operating on a delivery-only basis. That means the only part of the dining experience open to your customers is the food on offer: now more than ever, your menu has become the face of your business.

Buffalo Market
03/03/2021
Independent Restaurant Coalition Lead Q&A Web Event

On the one-year anniversary of US restaurant closures, leading members of the Independent Restaurant Coalition and the Golden Gate Restaurant Association came together last night for a public Q&A over Zoom, providing insights into how US restauranteurs are set to benefit from the recently signed American Rescue Plan

Berlin Stories

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.