After the wonderful concerts in St Eanswhythe Church and The Grand Shaft in Dover last weekend with the superb Lucy Humphris (trumpet) and Benny Vernon (trombone), the soprano Sarah Parkin & pianist Lara Dodds-Eden perform songs by Ravel/Stravinsky/ Feldman/Davies/Woolrich at kollectiv 4/08 7:00.

Great things are happening in FOLKESTONE. The Triennial of outdoor art opened on 19/07 to uniformly positive reviews in the nationals with an impressive number of local, UK & international visitors. Bravo Sorcha Carey & Creative Folkestone! But alongside the visual arts, Folkestone teems with MUSIC!

Following our explorations of the Double Bass, Clarinet and Violin over the last few weeks, Mark Simpson returns to kollectiv today at 7:00 to introduce the music of Helmutt Lachenmann. Mark will play Lachenmann’s Dal Niente & introduce Wiebke Pöpel’s award-winning portrait of Helmutt, ‘My Way’.

There are people who've had a huge influence on music who sadly fall from view.One such person is Stephen Plaistow. His encouragement of composers when at the BBC was unmatched. Indeed,he can be said to have transformed British music.Stephen has died, aged 88.We need to value more those who matter.

Such a great night in kollectiv yesterday as a full house was treated to Katie Beton talking to Folkestone's new star arrivals: Navied Mahdavian, the witty 'New Yorker' cartoonist. Navied's talked about his extraordinary sojourn in Idaho, beautifully captured in his graphic memoir 'This Country'.

Looking forward to 6/02, 7:30,The Grand, Folkestone for a journey into the intriguing territory of violin & cello duos.The masterly David Juritz & Adrian Bradbury will perform Stravinsky, Haydn, Villa-Lobos, Berio, Ligeti, Sibelius, Betsy Jolas & the stunning Ravel Sonata. www.folkestonenewmusic.com

When you get to my age, you shouldn't be surprised when people of the same vintage die. Paradoxically, that's life! But out of the blue someone's death has an unexpectedly big impact. Marianne Faithfull is one of these. I was not an avid fan or knew all her work but she certainly got under my skin.

We were pleased to launch the 2025 Folkestone New Music season at kollectiv, Folkestone's great new arts & culture hub, last week. You can just about make out John Woolrich & me talking to an enthusiastic gathering about the FORTY EIGHT events we've scheduled/planned for this year. Folkestone rocks!

A few weeks back we held an event at kollectiv, Folkestone's new new arts & culture hub, to celebrate the success of 'Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth',Mark Simpson's Viola Concerto premiered by the ace Tim Ridout with Robin Ticciati conducting the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin. Here's Mark:

Hats off to the indefatigable Sacconi's for the weekend residency for two young string quartets at The Grand Folkestone & bravo to the Quartets - the Apollo and the Chromium - for making the best of this opportunity. Thanks to the Oak Foundation & to Matt Shipton for enabling it all to happen.

The 2025 @folkestonenewmusic.bsky.social season kicks off this Thursday 23/1 at kollectiv, the new arts hub in F'stone, with @johnwoolrich.bsky.social at 6pm talking about the new season & at 7pm Mark Simpson & Mel Challenger will be talking about their very well-received 2016 opera 'Pleasure'.

Here's just some of the singers who can already be found here on @bluesky:
Lotte Bette-Dean
Peter Davoren
Joanna Harries
Jennifer Johnston
Stephanie Lamprea
Matthew Rose
Carolyn Sampson
John Savournin
Robin Tritschler
Heloise Werner
It's time for others to join the eXodus.

Don't miss this: another Folkestone first! Tomorrow & Saturday - kollectiv - 7:30 - 69 Old High Street - by and starring Giles Croft.

As it is clearly ethically unsustainable to stay on X, I've started the (no doubt formidable) task of persuading musicians to move to Bluesky. We can achieve this exodus if each of us does our bit. People will want to be on both platforms for a while but we do have the power make the change happen.