AWARD-Winning Welsh chamberfolk trio VRi come to Dorset in December for two concerts with with Artsreach, on Friday 15th at Litton Cheney community hall and on Saturday 16th at Corfe Castle village hall, both at 7.30pm. Winners of Best Album at the 2023 Wales Folk Awards, VRï have been praised for making a “formidable artistic…
TAKE a journey through the American song book from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn to Joni Mitchell, with an exciting trio of brilliant jazz musicians at the Marine Theatre at Lyme Regis on Friday 8th December. The line-up of legendary UK saxophonist Iain Ballamy (Hermeto Pascoal, Loose Tubes, Norma Winstone), singer Ian Shaw and brilliant…
WITCH, the band known as the Zambian Beatles in its heyday, released Zango, its first album in 40 years, back in June. The tour to celebrate the new disc was so successful that a second UK tour has been arranged. Ahead of the tour, and in celebration of Chaka Khan’s upcoming induction to the Rock…
THERE is avant-garde … and there is avant-pop, and it doesn’t get more avant-pop than the Penguin Cafe, making a return to the Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis, on Friday 1st December with music from their most recent album, Rain Before Seven, which was released in July. Avant-garde pushes back the boundaries of contemporary classical and…
SINGER and songwriter Sarah McQuaid has three more concerts before Christmas, over the coming weekend at Bemerton near Salisbury, Box and Swindon. The Spanish-born, Chicago raised Cornish resident makes her second visit to two interesting venues – the renovated former church built in 1860 at Bemerton on Saturday 25th November, and the little performance space…
CINEMA Obscura returns to Wiveliscombe Town Hall on Sunday 22nd October with a screening of the film credited with giving birth to the horror genre – FW Murnau’s Nosferatu. It will be screened, at 4pm, with a new live score played by Chris Green. Nosferatu was the first cinematic interpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula and…
GERTRUDE Lawrence, best known for her dazzling partnership with Noel Coward, is brought to the stage in a solo cabaret show at Langton Matravers on Thursday 19th October and Nether Compton on Friday 20th with Artsreach. Performer Lucy Stevens tells Gertie’s story in her own words. A Lovely Way to Spend an Evening, described as…
THE Artsreach autumn programme gets under way with the Scottish folk group Firelight Trio, playing music from across European traditions, at Cranborne’s Cecil Memorial Hall on Friday 6th October, Buckland Newton village hall on Saturday 7th and Drimpton village hall on Sunday 8th, all at 7.0pm. With more than 25 years of experience as professional…
SALISBURY’S Autumn vocal festival is all ready to Celebrate Voice again from 19th to 28th October in the city, marking its tenth year by welcoming the BBC Singers to the Italianate church in Wilton, and all other events to the Guildhall. Founder and director, Lynsey Docherty is delighted that the festival, which has recently become…
IT seems hard to believe that it is ten years since the first performances of the Ridgeway Singers and Band, and the anniversary is being celebrated with a concert at Bridport on Sunday 29th October. The group’s concerts of traditional (and new) Dorset songs and tunes feels like an ancient part of the cultural fabric…