What’s on (Past Events)

Dyskinetic

Infernal Machine – Night Owl

An illuminating performance featuring baroque specialist, jazz musician and composer David Gordon.

This is a seated show.

Heritage Park Reveals – Part of Wildlife Gathering

Drop in for a family day out to uncover the past and discover the future of Charterhouse Heritage Park.

Part of the city-wide Wildlife Gathering, join us for a fun-filled family-friendly day out as Charterhouse walled garden springs back to life and is revealed for the first time.

New Piano Music by Robert Ramskill

Two daytime performances celebrating new piano work from Robert Ramskill.

This is a seated show.

Two collections of new piano music by Coventry composer Robert Ramskill will be given their world première performances on May 22nd at Drapers’ Hall.

In the morning a set of pieces written for the use of elementary and intermediate level pianists will be played by local pupils. One of these pieces is called ‘Land of the Tiger’ and that title is also given to the group of pieces as a whole.

In the afternoon the complete set of 24 Preludes for Piano will be played by local virtuoso pianists Julian Hellaby, Cecilia Xi and Darren Leaper. The pieces display the many influences (ranging from Bach, Chopin and Debussy to Bartok, Popular Music and Jazz) from which Robert has developed his own personal style.

Coventry Opens: Charterhouse Reveals – Elizabethan wall painting

Part of Coventry Opens, be amongst the first to view the black and white Elizabethan wall painting since it’s restoration.

Listen to ideas from local researcher and history enthusiast, James Rose, on how it can be interpreted today.

Inspired by the wall painting, local street artist Katie O will be creating contemporary murals.

Coventry Opens: Anglican Chapel

Explore and interact with this site-specific installation that examines how the inside of the ear works and how movement affects the sounds we hear. In this creative interpretation we’ll see how movements of air allow us to hear sound.

Drawing from weaving, one of the industries that Coventry is most famous for, dance artists interpret this process in the live performances using a hanging warp of silk threads. The collaborators join the visitor in questioning the changing sounds of the City through time in industrial Coventry and what they hear here and now.

By collaborators Karen Wood, Lily Hayward-Smith, Louisa Petts (C-DaRE), Petra Johnson and Vip Artpradid 

Coventry Opens: The City Gates

Discover the newly restored City Gates as part of city-wide ‘Coventry Opens’.

Visit Swanswell Gate and Cook Street Gate on Fri 6 May between 10.30am-1pm for a special open (gate)house session to see how the gates have been repaired and revived.

Drop ins only, no booking necessary.

Coventry Opens: Priory Row

Discover newly restored Priory Row as part of city-wide ‘Coventry Opens’.

Visit the cottages on Fri 6 May between 2-4.30pm for a special open house session and see how they have been transformed.

Drop ins only, no booking necessary.

Oz and Armonico: Gin & Phonic

In the third instalment of this hugely successful programme, the Oz & Armonico team present ‘Gin & Phonic’, a unique performance dedicated to music and measure, full to the brim of incredible facts and fizzing fiction.

Sit and sip in Drapers’ beautiful ballroom and explore the highs and lows (mainly highs) of the relationship between pieces, people and the perfect pour.

Mostly piano: Jonathan Fashole-Luke

Mostly Piano is the lunchtime series of piano led recitals in our grand ballroom at Drapers’ Hall. Jonathan Fashole-Luke performs a solo piano recital of jazz standards and own compositions in his own unique style

Historic Coventry Trust tours

The guided walking tours of our city centre sites will be running regularly on the first Sunday afternoon of every month. The route will take in the City Gates and Lady Herbert’s Garden, Priory Row, Drapers Hall and the Burges, lasting approximately 1.5 hours.

The Wicker Man

The Film Liberation Project and Historic Coventry Trust present a special May Day screening of ‘The Wicker Man’, the 1973 British folk horror film directed by Robin Hardy and starring Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland and Christopher Lee. Screening in the atmospheric location of the Anglican Chapel in London Road Cemetery.

Grow with us – online volunteering meeting

Historic Coventry Trust invites you to join our expanding volunteer nature team and grow with us! If you enjoy gardening, growing and looking after green spaces, we have the perfect opportunities for you in Charterhouse Heritage Park.

To find out more, join us for an online meeting to discover what outdoor volunteering opportunities we have on offer. You will also be able to speak to some of our current volunteers about their experiences and the benefits of volunteering. Speakers will also include representatives from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.

This meeting will be taking place on Microsoft Teams on Thursday 28 April at 6pm.

Booking is essential, so make sure to reserve your free ticket. New to Microsoft Teams? No problem, you will receive guidance on how to use Teams once you have booked.

Cinecov movie night: School of Rock

The night will begin at 5pm with a live performance from one of our young Live on Stage bands to get you in the mood, followed by a showing of the movie “School of Rock”.

Tickets are priced at only £4. The venue bar will open for drinks and snacks. All proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the Coventry Music Trust which supports children access music activities.

School of Rock is a comedy about a Dewey Finn, who after being kicked out of his rock band, becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into a rock band. It is a fantastic family movie with a great line up including Jack Black, Mike White and Joan Cusack.

New Music Biennial: She Who by Jessica Curry & National Youth Chamber Choir

Experience the National Youth Chamber Choir of Great Britain perform their commission of She Who by BAFTA award winner Jessica Curry as part of the critically acclaimed New Music Biennial 2022.

New Music Biennial: The Crossing by Roopa Panesar

The Crossing is created by eminent sitarist Roopa Panesar with pianist Al MacSween and sound designer Camilo Tirado, and commissioned and produced by Opera North. Agile improvisers, the two musicians offer a deep immersion in the changing emotional states generated by Indian classical raag, through exchanges between themselves and the audience. Their sound surrounds the listeners, creating an intimate environment inspired by traditional Hindustani ‘baithak’ concerts, and offering a collective movement from loss towards renewal.

Charterhouse Reveals – Crucifixion wall painting

Be the first to view the internationally significant medieval wall painting at Charterhouse since its restoration.

Dive deep into the  history of the wall painting with a talk led by conservator Mark Perry.

Drop into a live demonstration of medieval techniques of wall painting by Saskia Huning.

New Music Biennial: 13 Vices by Brian Irvine and Jennifer Walshe

For ensemble, improvisers, conductor & voice, 13 Vices melts boundaries between theatre, poetry & contemporary music. Exploring the weird, humorous, dark & exotic world of contemporary vices, it is the creation of pioneering compositional voices – Brian Irvine & Jennifer Walshe. Featuring Red Note Ensemble, Paul Dunmall, Paul Rogers, & Mark Sanders.
First performed in 2015, the seed was planted many years before when Brian chanced upon sculptures by Mihail Chemiakin in Moscow. The collection of slightly grotesque figures, each representing a particular adult vice that is damaging to children was the springboard to the project, which would eventually become, in Brian’s words, “a wonderfully messy, chopped up, beautiful, bewitching cocktail of the best people making the best sounds and is a project that myself, collaborator Jennifer (Walshe) and all the gang are very proud of!”.

13 Vices will stick with you. It is truly some of the most imaginative and exhilarating music around.

New Music Biennial: Skip Dash Flow by Jason Yarde

Wonderbrass present Jason Yarde’s ‘SKIP DASH FLOW’.

SKIP DASH FLOW ploughs a journey from the host city of the 2008 Olympics, Beijing, to the carnival and samba style of 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro. The piece takes the audience and players alike on a cultural voyage crossing continents to celebrate the 2012 host city of London exploring British folk music and some London grime along the way.

New Music Biennial: The Moon has Become by Yazz Ahmed

Created by British-Bahraini composer and trumpeter Yazz Ahmed, this piece is presented as a surround-sound sonic artwork and performed live by an 11-piece ensemble. Inspired by the ethos of WOMAD and celebrating ‘a world that has no boundaries’, Ahmed invites audiences into the world of electronic-Middle-Eastern-rave-jazz. ‘The Moon Has Become’ has been conceived as a response to artist Luke Jerram’s Museum of the Moon installation (previously at Coventry Cathedral), and showcases new sound palettes and studio techniques explored by Ahmed during the pandemic.

New Music Biennial: Urban Birds by Arlene Sierra

Arlene Sierra is a composer of critically-acclaimed orchestral and chamber music whose compositional beginnings were in the electroacoustic field. Urban Birds is a return to Sierra’s electroacoustic roots, and brings together three international soloists who specialise in new music for piano plus electronics. Urban Birds combines harmony, rhythmic drive, and sounds from nature in a tapestry of environmental sound and virtuosic performance. The work engages musically with one of the central preoccupations of our time: Our relationship with the natural world.

Humankind rehearsed reading

Sleight of Hand present a rehearsed reading of Humankind, an adaptation of the medieval morality play Mankind, set in a contemporary context.

Binchois Consort

The Binchois will be performing early music, much of it directly connected to Coventry in the 15th century. This includes two movements of the Missa Caput, of which a manuscript fragment remarkably survives in Coventry. This great work may have been performed for Henry VI when he attended Mass in St Michael’s Church in 1451.

The performances will be introduced by Andrew Kirkman and will be connected with his talk at the associated conference at Drapers’ Hall ‘Celebrations, Communities and Performances: festival occasions in Coventry from the 15th to the 17th century’, 20-22 April, which can be booked separately via the following link: Celebrations, Communities and Performances

Metropolis Exhibition

Drop by the Metropolis building on Earl Street to discover the free exhibition Metropolis: Coventry’s medieval and modernist ambitions. Learn more about Coventry’s distinct contribution to the history of the built environment in Britain, from industrial premises including workshops, topshops and factories, to major religious buildings containing some of the finest decorative art in the country.

The exhibition’s curators, Sabine Coady Schäbitz and Mark Webb weave medieval and modern stories together in five themes: movement, enterprise, culture resilience and the future. Through photographs, sculpture, an excerpt of a VR model and archival film material, the exhibition invites you to take a closer look at Coventry’s impressive built heritage, spanning from the medieval religious buildings that were once nestled together in the centre of the city, as well as the ambitious plans of Donald Gibson and others in the 20th Century.

The Great Middlemarch Mystery

Gather clues as the story unfolds between four historic venues in central Coventry before coming together to solve the mystery in this interactive adventure.

From the novel Middlemarch – Scenes from Provincial Life by George Eliot Adapted by Josephine Burton with Ruth Livesey

Grow with us – volunteer tours

Historic Coventry Trust invites you to join our expanding volunteer nature team and grow with us! If you enjoy gardening, growing and looking after green spaces, we have a range of opportunities for you to get involved in the Charterhouse Heritage Park.

Join us for a free tour of the historic garden at Charterhouse and learn more about our outdoor volunteering roles: Garden Volunteer and Heritage Park Volunteer. As part of the tour, you will also be able to speak to some of our current volunteers about  their experiences and the many benefits of volunteering in your community.

Spaces are limited, so booking is essential.

Heritage crafts presents: Making Places

Skilled craft and manufacture has shaped our towns, cities and regions over generations, reflected in the buildings, street names and dialects, but often there is a disconnect between this rich heritage and our sense of place and personal identity. What can we do to help reconnect people with their craft heritage and show how the skills of the past are reflected in the making activities of today… and can continue to be a source of productivity, wellbeing and community into the future?

Braimah Kanneh-Mason

Violinest Braimah Kanneh-Mason performs with pianist – Junyan Chen.

Supported by the National Lottery and Arts Council England.

This is a seated show.

Alternative Trails: Mapping South Asian Women’s Activism

Resonate Festival returns to the project and event that lifted the rafters at the Assembly Gardens Festival in the summer of 2021.

In the beautiful surroundings of the newly-restored Drapers Hall, this glorious event is full of song and dance – enjoy a live performance of Giddha (an all-female Punjabi dance) and listen to the stories of activism placed on a map and converted into new boliyan (folk music genre of music, song and sound).

Despite a trailblazing history of South Asian women’s activism in Coventry, these stories are rarely featured in the city’s heritage imagery – this performance perfectly encapsulates them all into boliyan and giddha.

The Resonate Festival : And (M)other Stories

This textile based workshop brings together women from all over the world to tell their stories (not normally heard in public spaces) about their mother, grandmother, aunt and wider family. who may have been part of activist movements for equality and social justice in either in their country of origin or in Britain.

In the course of the workshop, the collaboratively created piece will represent these stories in material form using fabrics. Get involved…

Grow with us – volunteering tours

Historic Coventry Trust invites you to grow with us! If you enjoy gardening, growing and looking after green spaces, we have a range of volunteering opportunities for you in Charterhouse Heritage Park. Join us for a tour (starting at the Anglican Chapel at London Road Cemetery) to learn about our volunteer programme and find out how you can get involved.

Guz Khan

Buckle up for an evening of hilarious stand-up comedy featuring Coventry’s own Guz Khan.

Guz grew up in Hillfields and has featured on Taskmaster and Live at the Apollo, as well as his own comedy show Man Like Mobeen.

Part of CVX Festival – produced by Coventry City of Culture with Positive Youth Foundation and Birmingham Hippodrome

Deliaphonics : The Oram awards

Deliaphonic has teamed up with The Oram Awards – a platform for innovation in sound, music and related technologies. Named after Daphne Oram, one of the founding members of the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop, the awards aim to build on her legacy. Along with other women of the workshop, including Delia Derbyshire, Glynis Jones, Jenyth Worsley, Maddalena Fagandini and Elizabeth Parker, Oram played a vital role in establishing women at the forefront of innovation in newly-emerging audio technologies not only in the UK but around the world.

In this special presentation we bring together past award winners for an evening of innovative electronic music in the beautifully refurbished historic Drapers’ Hall.

The Oram Awards is a partnership between The New Radiophonic Workshop & PRS Foundation to elevate the work and voices of the next generation of women, girls and gender minority music creators in electronic music.

Historic Coventry Trust Tours

The guided walking tours of our city centre sites will be running regularly on the first Sunday afternoon of every month. The route will take in the City Gates and Lady Herbert’s Garden, Priory Row, Drapers Hall and the Burges, lasting approximately 1.5 hours.

Deliaphonics : Lia Mice kids gig

Created by the UK’s premiere experimental music festival, Supersonic Kids Gigs are designed for families as a way of introducing children to experimental music – BIG sounds for little people!

This special Kids Gig taking place at Draper’s Hall in Coventry will see electronic musician and instrument maker Lia Mice perform experimental techno-pop through immersive soundscapes. Lia will be bringing her latest self-designed instrument, ‘Chaos Bells’ – a very large (2 metres wide and tall!) sculptural instrument with 20 pendulums that produce bell-like chimes and chaotic drones.

Portrait of a Brain

A sculptural representation of a ‘spiky’ neurodiverse cognitive human profile, the piece’s colour and light describe the glory of individual, intersecting strengths and challenges in the brain workings of a (particular) autistic woman. Drop ins only, no tickets or pre booking required.

Mostly piano: Darren Leaper and Cecilia Xi

A new lunchtime series at Drapers’ Hall. Mostly Piano presents piano led recitals in our grand ballroom.

This is a seated show and will be at half venue capacity in light of recent Covid conditions*

*this is subject to change.

Darren Leaper and Cecilia Xi present a programme of piano duets including music by Debussy, Kapustin, Ravel and Schubert.

This concert is dedicated to the memory of pianist Peter Rossiter.

Talvin Singh

Percussionist, producer and composer, Talvin Singh, performs at Drapers’ Hall. Supported by the National Lottery and Arts Council England.

Rebel Rebel – Night Owl

Rebel Rebel examines the cultural impact and far reaching legacies of two visionary artists who challenged the weight of received ideas and accepted musical norms during their respective lifetimes.

Harold and Maude

The Film Liberation Project will celebrate this Valentine’s Day with a special screening of Harold and Maude, a rare romantic comedy which sees Bud Cort as Harold, a death obsessed young man, develop a romance with 79-year-old Maude (Ruth Gordon), a Nazi concentration camp survivor, who teaches Harold about the importance of living life to its fullest.

Directed by Hal Ashby, the film is a cult classic coming of age black comedy and a landmark entry of the New Hollywood era of the 1970s.

Made in the Midlands with Jess Philips MP

The outspoken and independent-minded Shadow Minister and onetime Labour leadership candidate was born and raised in Birmingham, and has been MP for the city’s Yardley seat since 2015.

How has her Midlands upbringing influenced her politics and unique style? Which Midlands people and places have shaped the person she is today?

Made In The Midlands is commissioned by Coventry City of Culture Trust and produced by Loftus Media.

Jaz Delorean solo show INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK

Front man of Tankus the Henge and a firm festival favourite. Jaz Delorean performs a solo set at Drapers’ Hall. Supported by the National Lottery and Arts Council England.

This is a seated show.

Dele Sosimi INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK

Dele Sosimi, one of the most active musicians currently on the Afrobeat scene, comes to Drapers’ Hall. Supported by the National Lottery and Arts Council England.

This is a standing show.

Mammal Hands INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK

The semi-classical drums/sax/piano trio Mammal Hands perform at Drapers’ Hall.

This is a seated show and will be at near full capacity.

Mostly piano: Sarah Beth Briggs INDEPENDENT VENUE WEEK

A new lunchtime series at Drapers’ Hall. Mostly Piano presents piano led recitals in our grand ballroom. The first in the series, Sarah Beth Briggs plays piano music by Haydn, Chopin and Debussy.

This is a seated show and will be at half venue capacity in light of recent Covid conditions*

*this is subject to change.

Haiku Salut lamp show

Haiku Salut, an instrumental dream pop and electronica trio from the Derbyshire Dales, perform at the newly restored Drapers’ Hall.

This is a seated show.