features & interviews

the artsdesk in Fez: A global Sufi safari with added techno

Peter Culshaw |

The Fez Festival of World Sacred Music has been peerless over the years in presenting world/global music acts in one magical place. Only WOMAD is a serious rival as a long-established global music fest.

SMart festival spotlights mobile phone filmmaking

Saskia Baron |

A recent OFCOM study found that over 90% of young people tune into video-sharing platform and streamers and only spend a quarter of their viewing time on broadcast TV. It’s a fair guess then that the majority of the content they are watching has been generated on smartphones, which makes the SMart festival particularly timely. 

First Person: mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston on why Schumann is on her mind

Helen Charlston
“I’m a German Romantic at heart – there’s no better music.”  I found myself saying this recently after performing Robert Schumann’s song cycle…

The Rolling Stones speak in 'Foreign Tongues'

Tim Cumming
“Guys, don’t grow old gracefully… it wouldn’t suit you,” The Who’s Pete Townshend told the Rolling Stones at their induction to the Rock n Roll Hall…

Fallow year ruminations on four decades at the Glastonbury Festival

caspar.gomez
Sweating in my lair, there’s no trip to the mecca this year. If the festival was on, I'd be there right now, but it’s a fallow year and Glastonbury…

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First Person: author and album compiler Cathi Unsworth on why the best women singers wear black

Cathi Unsworth
As her collection of music by goth divas appears, the writer reveals the appeal of the dark side

First Person: director Jonathan Bank on restoring a bygone Irish play to the canon

Jonathan Bank
A onetime Abbey Theatre reject is reintroduced at London's Jermyn Street Theatre

Bold Tendencies at 20: how a unique arts festival transformed more than a Peckham car park

Veronica Simpson
An inventive and uplifting programme of sculpture, live music, dance and spoken word

First Person: singer-songwriter Bedouine on displacement, motherhood and her own ancestry

Bedouine
On her new album, the musician follows her Armenian heritage to its roots

A classic revisited: how Miles Davis's 'Lift to the Scaffold' set the tone for the French New Wave

Mark Kidel
To mark the centenary of a jazz great, we explore a soundtrack that eclipsed the film

'The best way to explore climate change is through future generations': artist Aylal Heydarova on public art, butterflies, and her Azerbaijani heritage

Rachel Halliburton
Her large sculpted butterflies act both as an inspiration and a warning

First Person: soprano Claire Booth on the art of storytelling at this year’s Sheffield Chamber Music Festival

Claire Booth
A very individual singer joins Ensemble 360 for eight days of superb programming

First Person: Pulitzer finalist Sarah Ruhl on theatrical intimacy sealed with a kiss

Sarah Ruhl
Ruhl's Off Broadway play 'Stage Kiss' is coming to the Hampstead Theatre

First Person: Flora Wilson Brown on bringing Virginia Woolf shimmeringly to the stage

Flora Wilson Brown
'The Waves' reaches the shore once again, this time at Jermyn Street Theatre

First Person: Violinist and festival director Benjamin Baker on bringing world class chamber music from New Zealand to London

Benjamin Baker
At the World's Edge festival travels from mountains to metropolis

First Person: director Guido Martin-Brandis on following Handel's creative tweaks and introducing teens to opera

Guido Martin-Brandis
Workshops ahead of a new production of 'Imeneo' help bring young people to opera

Oscars 2026: one award after another at surprise-free, sluggish ceremony

Matt Wolf
'One Battle After Another' is the big winner over 'Sinners' amid a leaden Oscars that mixed impassioned politics with too much painful filler

First Person: Playwright Bill Rosenfield on carrying Noel Coward's legacy into the 21st century

Bill Rosenfield
Early Coward play 'The Rat Trap' gets kickstarted afresh at the Park Theatre

First Person: mezzo-soprano Katie Bray on the chameleonic songs of Kurt Weill

Katie Bray
'How do you take your Weill? Sarcastic, sultry, or with a sardonic smile?'

Best of 2025: Books

theartsdesk
Turn the page on 2025 with our finest books of the year

Best of 2025: Film

theartsdesk
In a year of great indies, our critics chose the best

First Person: Kerem Hasan on the transformative experience of conducting Jake Heggie's 'Dead Man Walking'

Kerem Hasan
English National Opera's production of a 21st century milestone has been a tough journey

Bizet in 150th anniversary year: rich and rare French offerings from Palazzetto Bru Zane

David Nice
Specialists in French romantic music unveil a treasure trove both live and on disc

First Person: clarinettist Oliver Pashley on the new horizons of The Hermes Experiment's latest album

Oliver Pashley
Compositions by members of this unusual quartet feature for the first time

First Person: Manchester Camerata's Head of Artistic Planning Clara Marshall Cawley on questioning the status quo

Clara Marshall Cawley
Five days of free events with all sorts of audiences around Manchester starts tomorrow

Robert Redford (1936-2025)

James Saynor
The star was more admired within the screen trade than by the critics

First Person: Musician ALA.NI on how thoughts of empire and reparation influenced a song

ALA.NI
She usually sings about affairs of the heart - 'TIEF' is different, explains the star

Interview: Quinteto Astor Piazzolla on playing in London and why Mick Jagger's a fan

Rachel Halliburton
Music Director Julián Vat and pianist Matias Feigin compare notes on Piazzolla

Sir Brian Clarke (1953-2025) - a personal tribute

Mark Kidel
Remembering an artist with a gift for the transcendent

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