Arts in the city: Blazing burst of eight local artists

• “BLAZE Eight”, an exhibition by eight (of course) local artists – S.A. Adair, Katherine Griffiths, Martin James, Alex Lewis, Hardy Lohse, Katy Mutton, Jemima Parker, Tim Phillips – is expected to set the town on fire. Watch out for Lewis’s “gigantic labyrinthine staircase”. It’s curated by Alexander Boynes and Annika Harding and runs at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman House, Tuesday-Saturday, 11am-5pm, until March 22.

• The Mah Ensemble… playing Persian melodies at the ANU on February 21.

  THE Mah (it means “moon”) Ensemble, conducted by composer Majid Derakhshani, will perform classical and traditional Persian melodies at the ANU Arts Centre, 8pm, Friday, February 21, bookings to 0418 660399.

• ALL eyes will be on the head of the ANU School of Music, vocalist Peter Tregear and ANU music student, pianist Aaron Chew, when they perform Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann in Wesley Music Centre’s “Wednesday Lunchtime Live Series” from 12.40pm-1.20pm on February 19. Entry by gold coin or paper note, bookings not required.

• BEN & Jerry’s Openair Cinemas is hosting music and movies in Commonwealth Park until March 8. On February 16 Jinja Safari heads up the “Sundae Sessions” Charity Launch before the screening of “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”. Proceeds go towards WWF’s “Fight For the Reef” campaign. Bookings and details openaircinemas.com.au

• JON English will be back in town with a five-piece band in a show featuring all his hits and songs from musicals he’s played in. At Teatro Vivaldi, February 21, bookings to 6257 2718.

• IN the next free Sunday concert at the High Court of Australia, “Tapestries of Sound” will feature Indian classical and Celtic folk music, accompanied by dance. From 1pm, March 16, free entry, bookings not required.

• TUGGERANONG Arts Centre Gallery is running the gamut in February with “Faces of Asylum” focusing on the human face of the refugee experience and Steve Roper’s “Suburbia” looking at, well, suburbia. Until February 28, Monday to Friday (9am-5pm).

• EVER so quietly, “Weereewa – a Festival of Lake George” is resurfacing after two dormant years with “Weereewa – Alternate Histories”, a surround-style work recreating the Lake George escarpment and the Weereewa lake bed by local indigenous artists Jennifer Kemarre Martiniello and Lyndy Delian, running at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery until March 10.

• CLASSICAL guitarist Matt Withers has told us of the Young Australian Music Composition Competition, where applicants will submit a new work for solo classical guitar with the chance to win $500 and a performance by Withers himself in November. Visit mattwithers.com.au/compositioncompetition

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