Colin Neville is the curator of the website Not Just Hockney. As I am featured in his list of artists on this website, he kindly informed me recently about a very interesting gentleman called Thomas Ablett. I immediately felt a connection to this artist.

Signum pairs two composers who rarely feel like strangers to one another, and this disc makes the case for their kinship well. Parry's De Profundis — a large-scale, twelve-part setting of Psalm 130 — dominates proceedings, its long arc from penitence to consolation still capable of catching a listener off guard more than a century on. God Is Our Hope and Strength offers a shorter but no less confident companion piece, while Elgar supplies the disc's more intimate corners: the partsong The Snow and the folk-inflected Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands, both far removed from the pomp he's better known for.

The Oulu Sinfonia are the real stars of this cycle: precise, accurate, never once caught fumbling for a note, with woodwind and strings that make light and melody of everything put in front of them. Four composers, one landscape, and not a single weak link in the chain — Sibelius would probably approve of the company he's keeping

The Pheasant breaking cover - its fluster of browns and greys like the unpainted sides of piano keys you only see when it's played. Ali Lewis' poems often reside on the margin of suggestion. That, in 'The Pheasant', he appears to have achingly little to say need not obscure the vista of meaning that his threadbare, but steadily observed, lines open on to.

Like the 1982 film, the current version of Annie is based on a feisty, eleven year old orphan with an unwavering belief that her parents will return for her – and her life will be transformed forever.

Few artists are as closely associated with the soundtrack of the 1980s as Tom Bailey. As the frontman of the Thompson Twins, he helped define an era with a string of timeless synth-pop classics, yet his relationship with that legacy has always been measured rather than nostalgic.

In the rolling green valleys of Switzerland’s Bernese Oberland, where yodelling once carried messages from mountain to mountain, a family ensemble has spent nearly three decades proving that tradition need not stand still to survive.

With his new album Songs From The Trees, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chris Murphy has created a record that feels both timeless and adventurous.

Hot Flash cast members Elios Douglas, Roz Gemma and Matt Jameson on acting, identity, and barriers to success. Elios: The biggest difficulty I’ve faced as a trans actor is simply that there aren’t many trans roles. They’re not being written, and when they are, loads of us go up for them, so the chances are tiny. Without an agent or a first credit, breaking in is even harder.

If Eternal Sunshine hinted at a more reflective Ariana, Petal fully embraces that direction. These songs unfold gently, rewarding patience rather than demanding attention. The production is smooth and understated, blending soft pop with contemporary R&B textures that give the record a dreamy, almost weightless feel.

I spilt my drink and screamed in horror when a deafening shotgun blast reverberated from a screen with silhouettes immersed in smoke and engaged in conflict. An explosive opening set the pace for a high-octane musical - a fusion of genres creatively integrating gripping cinematic effects with a pop concert bursting with pizazz.

Hundreds of primary school pupils from nine North East schools have come together to re-enact Shakespeare’s illustrious comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Led by Theatre Royal associate artists, the feast of creativity from almost four hundred nine and ten year olds comprised a series of classroom workshops across Newcastle’s West End.

Fresh from a morning of interviews and still buzzing between events, this year's Festival Programming Chair, Lisa Jewell, talks to Andrew Palmer at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival about omissions, instinct, and the coercive-control novel taking shape for 2027. The deckchairs are out on the lawn of the Old Swan Hotel, the sun is doing exactly wha…

Martha Argerich is nothing less than the High Priestess of the Piano, and this release marks a fitting way to celebrate her 85th birthday: a complete digital collection of her recordings for Deutsche Grammophon and Philips, spanning 65 years, from 1961 to the present day. Her solo recordings, though relatively few, are each a gem — from Chopin to Ravel, Bach to Schumann — but it is her partnerships with the great artists of her generation that have defined her legacy: Claudio Abbado, Nelson Freire, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky and Daniel Barenboim are among them.

Dicks There was little on which we did not draw a dick, compassing grey paint off lockers, etching desks, but mostly inking each other’s files or textbooks, apostles casting cocks across the Sea of Galilee, Tybalt shaking terrible showers onto poor Juliet, dark colossi swung over relief maps of Gallipoli, some veiny and ridged, some rushed as signatures.

Andrew Palmer, Group Editor, on how The Duke's Theatre Company concluded this year's festival at Ripon Racecourse with a Romeo and Juliet that showcased wit, precision, and considerable heart – a fitting finale!