Ask anyone: Ólöf Arnalds can mesmerise a room with nothing but a small guitar and her distinctive soprano voice. Across five albums in nearly twenty years, her gently plucked guitar, charango, violin and koto have provided the bedrock for vivid narrations straddling the mundane and mythological, sketching out rich emotional territories often concerned with love–equal […]
The deadline is approaching for the 2026 Observer Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism. This annual competition aims to discover the best new writing in arts journalism. Entrants are asked to write a review of a new work in the arts. The maximum length is 800 words, and there is a prize fund of £4,000 […]
Mitch Benn is bringing his sold-out show A Christmas Carol, continuing Charles Dickens’ tradition of performing the text live, and using Dickens’ original abridged text, let Mitch immerse you in the Christmas spirit with the beloved classic! Come and live the magic of Christmas. This is a family show. The show lasts for 70 minutes […]
You are invited to join us to celebrate the launch of Piano Works: Volume 2, a new collection of piano music by Anthony Burgess. Best known for his dystopian science fiction and comic novels, Burgess also composed more than 250 musical works, including a symphony, a piano concerto, two Broadway musicals, chamber music, and settings […]
The acclaimed quartet Marici Saxes open Manchester Saxophone Academy’s brand-new concert series, The Hive Live, with an evening of scintillating sound and lighter classical fare that has delighted audiences worldwide. Marici Saxes are a dynamic saxophone quartet from London, UK: four unique musicians brought together through a craving for collective creativity and establishing a firm […]
Opera Vera’s debut production, To Life Beyond, features two powerful vocal cycles that confront the mystery of death — not with fear, but with transcendent beauty. Shostakovich’s Seven Romances on Poems of Alexander Blok (Op. 127), a 20th-century masterpiece, is paired with Beggar’s Belief by contemporary British composer Adam Gorb. Though composed decades apart, both […]
Manchester-based cellist Joseph Dawson and fine instrument shop Tim Toft Violins present a delightful evening of chamber works in the intimate venue of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. From Mozart to Kodály to Ribaupierre, Joseph and his friends will perform works both well known and delightfully obscure. Performers: Arthur Geoghegan – Violin Anna Tulchinskaya – […]
Ian Fleming’s greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture, but Fleming’s life was more mysterious than anything he wrote. Only a writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal experiences and career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while […]
Join Serenity Books on Wednesday 4th June at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation in Manchester for a very special evening with award-winning stand up comedian Suzi Ruffell as we celebrate the release of her brilliantly funny and incredibly moving memoir Am I Having Fun Now?: Anxiety, Applause and Life’s Big Questions, Answered. Suzi will be […]
Reimagining Vintage Burgess Anthony Burgess was a writer of extraordinary range, his novels rich with linguistic invention, satire, and cultural commentary. The Vintage Burgess collection (pictured below) has introduced his works to new generations of readers, but how might these books be visually reimagined for today’s audience? This exhibition presents a fresh take on Burgess’s […]