Tag: Damien O’Kane & Ron Block

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Kate Rusby celebrates 20 years of festive folk Carol concerts with Christmas Is Merry return to York Barbican on December 11

Christmas Is Merry for Kate Rusby: “It just seemed the perfect title for the tour that celebrates 20 years of my Christmas gigs,” she says

BARNSLEY folk nightingale Kate Rusby returns as bright as a festive robin to York Barbican on December 11 on her 20th anniversary Christmas Is Merry tour.

Kate, who turned  52 today (4/12/2025), will cherry pick from her seven winter albums, 2008’s Sweet Bells, 2011’s While Mortals Sleep, 2015’s The Frost Is All Over, 2017’s Angels And Men, 2019’s Holly Head, 2020’s Happy Holly Day (Live) and 2023’s Light Years. 

In the company of her regular band, coupled with the added warmth of “the Brass Boys”, Kate combines carols still sung in South Yorkshire pubs with her winter songs and favourite Christmas chestnuts. As ever, look out for the festive fancy dress finale and maybe her new Christmas Chill version of The Wren@20.

Here Kate discusses the magic and joy of Christmas songs past and present with CharlesHutchPress.

The 2025 tour has a new title, Christmas Is Merry. Why did you choose that one, Kate?

“We recorded a gorgeous song called Christmas Is Merry a few years ago, and it’s a favourite of ours to play live now. It just seemed the perfect title for the tour that celebrates 20 years of my Christmas gigs. We all have such a great time on the tour, we just adore it and are very, very merry and giddy throughout, so the title just fitted.”  

What will be the new elements of the latest round of Kate Rusby Christmas concerts: New set design? New additions to the set list? 

“Ooooh, absolutely new set; it’s going to be so fab! I can’t give any spoilers, but when people walk into the auditorium hopefully they’ll love it. We’re going retro is the only clue I’ll give!

Kate Rusby’s cover artwork for her 2023 Christmas album, Light Years

“As for the set list, as it’s celebrating 20 years, we’ve tried to include audience faves and our faves from over the years, which actually match up!” 

What will be the band line-up for this winter’s tour?

“Same as last year, my band of six: myself, Damien O’Kane, acoustic guitars, electric guitars and banjo; Duncan Lyall, double bass and Moog; Sam Kelly, guitars, bouzouki and vocals; Nick Cook, accordions and electric guitar, and Josh Clarke, percussion.

“Plus my fabulous brass lads: Gary Wyatt, cornet; Lee Clayson, flugelhorn horn; Robin Taylor, euphonium; Chris Howlings, French horn, and Nick Etheridge, tuba. So that’s 11 on stage in total including lil’ old me.

“It’s our biggest tour of the year, so we have more of our incredible crew, lights, set etc, all travelling round in a big truck. Every single one of them is a true gem and talented beyond belief. I’m so lucky to work with them all.” 

What are the ingredients that go into making the perfect Christmas album? The familiar, the unfamiliar, the new and the old?

“Exactly that! I like to include something for everyone! On each Christmas album I’ve made, there are songs from the South Yorkshire pub-sings, to songs more recognisable, to classics we hear every year (but Rusby-fied, of course!)

“I like to search for more quirky, funny songs that appeal to the younger generation, (Hippo For Christmas or I’m Getting Nothing For Christmas, for instance) and then I also include songs I’ve written, about the New Year bells ringing in a new start [Let The Bells Ring] or about a lost angel I imagined sitting in a tree in our snowy garden [Glorious].”

Kate Rusby in wintertime. Picture: David Angel

How come you have made so many Christmas albums, whereas Michael Buble and Kylie Minogue both keep re-releasing the same one?! 

“Ha!!! Aw, I love Michael Buble and Kylie, they’re both very cool. I see Kylie has just released a new song called XMAS. I love it. I suppose I just have way too many songs I still want to record, from the pub-sings round here and beyond. I love researching and discovering new cool Christmas songs, and I love writing them too, so there’s no way I’m done yet!”

How come there are so many versions – and variations – of While Shepherds Watched? Where do you keep finding them?

“I know them from the ‘pub-sings’ around this area of South Yorkshire, where more than 30 different versions still exist! The South Yorkshire carols are something I am truly passionate about, and the very reason I started our Christmas tour in the first place.

“The carols were lost to the rest of the country, (apart from a little pocket of Cornwall, where they have similar carols and some totally different!), so I wanted to show them off and spread them around again, and here we are 20 years later! I just love it.” 

Will it be roast turkey or goose or neither for the Rusby-O’Kane household on Christmas Day?

“Ooh, we’re going turkey this year! We did have goose for a few years but we’ve gone back to turkey. With all the trimmings of course, even down to bread sauce. Whoop!”

Do you have a favourite Christmas album in the Rusby household?

“There tends to be a LOT of singing at a Rusby family Christmas, but I love listening to Louis Armstrong’s Christmas music. It feels me with warmth and always makes me smile.” 

Banjo players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block: Teaming up for third album together, Banjovial, Kate Rusby’s pick of 2025

Which album have you enjoyed discovering this year that you would recommend giving as a Christmas present?

“I have to say one of my faves from this year is hubby Damien O’Kane’s new album Banjovial. His third album he’s recorded with fellow banjo legend Ron Block. “Ron plays with Alison Krauss; in fact he’s been her right hand banjo man for more than 30 years.

“Dee and Ron became best banjo buddies a few years ago and he’s played on my last few albums. He’s so great, as is Damien, and together they make the best, happy, uplifting, sunshine-in-a-bottle music! Fully recommended!”

Do you have recording plans for 2026?

“Yes, I have a plan! An album I’ve been wanting to record for a wee while, so I’ll be getting stuck into that when my girls [Phoebe Summer and Daisy Delia] are back to school in January. It’ll probably be released around the middle of the year I think.” 

Kate Rusby: Christmas Is Merry, York Barbican, December 11, 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk. Her tour visits Bradford St George’s Hall (December 5, bradford-theatres.co.uk);  London (Dec 7); Manchester (Dec 9); Llandudno (Dec 10); York (Dec 11); Gateshead (Dec 13); Sheffield City Hall (Dec 14, sheffieldcityhall.co.uk); Brighton (Dec 16); Bristol (Dec 17); Nottingham (Dec 19) and Cambridge (Dec 20.)

On a separate matter

You played Ryedale Festival this summer at the Milton Rooms, Malton, with the Singy Songy Session Band, performing latest album When They All Looked Up. What do you recall of that experience?

“AW it was so gorgeous! What a beautiful little hall, we loved it. Our girls came along as did my parents, and other friends of the family so it was just fab. The audience were really great too, and probably the smartest dressed audience I have ever had!”

Here comes Kate Rusby’s Christmas album number EIGHT, 5/12/2025

The cover artwork for Kate Rusby’s eighth Christmas album, Christmas Is Merry

KATE Rusby is marking her 20th anniversary of Christmas shows with an exclusive and limited-run double CD of magical, joyful festive music.

Kate Rusby 20 Christmas Is Merry will be available only via Kate’s official website, at https://katerusby.com/album/20-christmas-is-merry/,  through Proper Music and on the Christmas merchandise table, with digital release across all major platforms. Look out too for new Christmas jumpers, scarves and bobble hats on the Christmas Is Merry tour table that visits Bradford St George’s Hall, December 5, York Barbican, December 11, and Sheffield City Hall, December 14.

Mirroring 2012’s 20 and 2022’s 30 albums that celebrated two and three decades of touring, Kate Rusby 20 Christmas Is Merry combines 17 live recordings from the past five years’ Christmas carol concerts with new acoustic re-workings of five “Rusbyfied” festive favourites, Kris Kringle, Little Jack Frost, Hippo For Christmas, Holly And The Ivy and The Wren, each warm and tender, intimate and timeless, comforting and transcendent.

The full track listing is: Disc 1, Hark Hark; Christmas Is Merry; Holly King; Sweet Chiming Bells; The Frost Is All Over; Arrest These Merry Gentlemen; Paradise; The Most Wonderful Time; Sunny Bank; Little Town Of Bethlehem and Sweet Bells.

Disc 2, Bradfield; Glorious; Winter Wonderland; The Moon Shines Bright; Here We Come A Wassailing; Let The Bells Ring and 2025 acoustic recordings of Kris Kringle; Little Jack Frost; Hippo For Christmas; Holly And The Ivy and The Wren.

Kate Rusby 20 Christmas Is Merry, Pure Records, released on December 5 2025

 

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When Irishman Damien O’Kane meets Californian Ron Block, banjo magic happens at National Centre for Early Music

Damien O’Kane, left, and Ron Block, with their contrasting banjos

THE humble banjo is often maligned…until placed in the whirling hands of Northern Irishman Damien O’Kane and Californian Ron Block, whose banjo bromance blooms anew on third album Banjovial and its accompanying tour.

The 14-date itinerary opened in Barnsley last Friday and arrives at the National Centre for Early Music, York, on Wednesday (15/10/2025).

Seven years on from their Banjophany debut album, followed by 2022’s Banjophonics,  Coleraine-born, Barnsley-based O’Kane picks up his Irish tenor banjo once more to recharge his telepathic transatlantic connectivity with Gardena-born Block’s five-string bluegrass banjo on Banjovial’s ten new tunes and two original songs, supplemented by guest contributions from Irish button accordionist Sharon Shannon and American bluegrass fiddlers Aubrey Haynie and Tim Crouch.

Percussive and punchy, ebullient and life-affirming, their banjo union revels in light and shade and tempo shifts from fast, cracking fireworks to more reflective flowing timbres and tunes.

“It would have been in 2012 when we first performed together,” says Damien, as he looks forward to returning to the NCEM – “a gorgeous little place”  – for the first time in more than a decade.

“I first met Ron in 2011 as he’s involved in a bluegrass summer school called Sore Fingers at Kingham High School [in the Cotswolds], where Kate’s brother Joe works every year on the sound for the concerts.” Kate being Barnsley folk singer Kate Rusby, Damien’s wife since 2010.

“Ron invited us to see him playing with Alison Krauss & Union Station [his regular beat] and invited us backstage, and that was our first meeting.”

Block duly played on two songs on Rusby’s album 20, joining Eddi Reader and Dick Gaughan on Wandering Soul and Reader, Jerry Douglas and Philip Selway on Sho Heen. “Kate then asked Ron to play on the 20 tour , so it all went uphill from there!” says Damien.

The cover artwork for Damien O’Kane and Ron Block’s third album, Banjovial, released on Cooking Vinyl on October 3

Their partnership brings out the best in each other’s banjos. “The most notable difference is that the five-string banjo is bigger with more frets and those five strings, and Ron plays with two picks on his fingers and one on his thumb, so his style is very much fingerstyle, very ‘arpeggioed’, whereas the Irish tenor banjo is plectrum style,” says Damien.

“Over the years we’ve both tried in our playing to give a nod to the other style, so I’ll do a lot of cross-picking on the Irish tenor banjo.

“It makes for really interesting tunes with two completely different banjo sounds. The five-string strings are lighter, so there’s a brighter sound, whereas I like the mellow sound of the Irish tenor banjo that doesn’t ‘punch you in the face’!”

Damien has always been a fan of duel banjo playing. “I grew up listening to and playing Irish traditional music, watching music sessions from The Corner House on Irish TV [on Geantrai on TG4], when Cathal Hayden and Brian McGrath would play tunes together, just two banjos,” he says.

“I was about nine years old, and I remember it being one of the most amazing things I’d ever heard. It was like a banjo epiphany.”

O’Kane and Block first toured together on their own, but now perform with a band featuring Steven Byrnes on guitar and Duncan Lyall on double bass and Moog, both from Rusby’s band.

“It’s fascinating to do because I don’t really get to play much banjo on Kate’s tours, which is my main focus through the year, primarily playing guitar, and yet the banjo was my main instrument long before guitar, so to be able to record and play tunes with Ron is a real chance to push each other’s musicianship,” says Damien.

The Damien O’Kane and Ron Black Band, featuring Steven Byrnes and Duncan Lyall

“I remember thinking with the first album, ‘oh my god, I’m playing with Ron Block, I have to bring my A-game’.”

 He still does, this time in tandem with Block on tunes “triggered by comedic events, family and friends, CS Lewis’s The Chronicles Of Narnia’, heart-stopping moments, beloved animals, the craziness of Covid and even cartoon themes,  swinging from the humorous to the heartfelt”.

“We record everything live for the albums, as playing live give it an extra spark,” says Damien. “I think the new album is definitely our best, probably in a few senses, one of them being that we really learned how to lock on to each other’s playing.

“There’s a running joke we have that I’m always ahead and Ron is always behind, which adds to the excitement, as we’re not about making perfect music.

“This album is more mature. I’m not taking anything away from the other two but we’ve learned so much from each other and from the band. We’re tight-knit now, knowing each other’s strengths – and weaknesses too!”

It was Ron Block, by the way, who came up with the Banjovial album title. “We wanted to keep that title theme going, and I thought, ‘that’s the one’, as it sums up what we do, when people tend to be scared of one banjo, let alone two, but not us!”

Damien and Kate had first met Banjovial guest contributor Sharon Shannon when they were gigging at Monroe’s Live in Galway, where Sharon lives. “We were playing upstairs and she was playing a session downstairs; she came up to listen to the last half of Kate’s set and we went out for a couple of drinks afterwards,” he recalls.

Galway button accordionist Sharon Shannon: Played on Damien’s tune St Patrick’s Day on Banjovial

“That’s when I asked if she’d like to play on the album, and she said, ‘oh, absolutely’, which was a pinch-me moment, as I’d listened to her albums since childhood. She’s a sweetheart too.

“We sent her the track [Damien’s St Patrick’s Day], she recorded it in Galway, and that was that!”

Likewise, Damien and Ron sent the track Mario Kart Rides Again to bluegrass fiddler and mandolin player Aubrey Haynie. “I’d never come across him before but Ron said, ‘we’ve got to get him on an album some time because he’s amazing’,” says Damien.

“All the car sound effects on there, the car screeching, the police car, Aubrey did them all on his fiddle. He’s incredible.”

On the road from October 10 to 26, Damien will be on driving duty. “Ron stays in the passenger seat. He did drive us once over here, and I told him he’d never do that again!” he says.

Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band’s Banjovial Tour plays National Centre for Early Music, York, tomorrow (15/10/2025), 7.30pm, and Otley Courthouse, October 24, 8pm. Box office: York, 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk; Otley, 01943 467466 or otleycourthouse.org.uk.

Damien O’Kane’s guitars and banjo will be in the band for Kate Rusby’s Christmas Is Merry concert at York Barbican on December 11, 7pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond monsters, ghosts, banjos and bratwurst. Hutch’s List No. 45, from The York Press

Anna Soden: No bum deal, bum steer or bum’s rush, for that would be a bummer at tonight’s hour of comedy, It Comes Out You Bum, at The Old Paint Shop

FROM royal history re-told to Dickens’ ghost stories, magical monsters to banjo brilliance, Charles Hutchinson delights in October’s diversity.

Homecoming of the week: Anna Soden, It Comes Out Your Bum, The Old Paint Shop, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 8pm

NOW based in Brighton but very much shaped in York, comedian, actor, writer, TikTok sensation and award-nominated Theatre Royal pantomime cow in Jack And The Beanstalk, Anna Soden delivers her debut hour of madcap comedy, full of brainwaves, songs, revenge and talking out your ass. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Robin Simpson: Monster storyteller and York Theatre Royal pantomime dame, performing at Rise@Bluebird Bakery

Spooky entertainment of the week: Robin Simpson’s Magic, Monsters And Mayhem!, Rise at Bluebird Bakery, Acomb, York, Sunday, doors 4pm

YORK Theatre Royal pantomime dame Robin Simpson – soon to give his Nurse Nellie in Sleeping Beauty this winter – celebrates witches, wizards, ghosts and goblins in his storytelling show.

“The audience is in charge in this interactive performance, ideal for fans of spooky stories and silly songs,” says Robin. “The show is perfect for Years 5 and upwards, but smaller siblings and their grown-ups are very welcome too.” Tickets: bluebirdbakery.co.uk/rise.

Out for revenge: Henry VIII’s wives turn the tables in SIX The Musical, returning to the Grand Opera House, York, from Tuesday. Picture: Pamela Raith

Recommended but sold-out already: SIX The Musical, Grand Opera House, York, October 14 to 18; Tuesday & Thursday, 8pm; Wednesday & Friday, 6pm and 8.30pm; Saturday, 4pm and 8pm

FROM Tudor queens to pop princesses, the six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their tales, remixing 500 years of historical heartbreak into an 80-minute celebration of 21st century girl power. Think you know the rhyme? Think again. Divorced. Beheaded. LIVE!

Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow’s hit show is making its third visit to York, but it’s third time unlucky if you haven’t booked yet. Like Anne Boleyn’s head, every seat has gone.

Eddi Reader: Performing with her full band at The Citadel

Seven-year itch of the week: Hurricane Promotions presents Eddi Reader, The Citadel, York City Church, Gillygate, York, October 15, 7.30pm

EDDI Reader, the Glasgow-born singer who fronted Fairground Attraction, topping the charts with Perfect, also has ten solo albums, three BRIT awards and an MBE for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts to her name.

Straddling differing musical styles and making them her own, from the traditional to the contemporary, and interpreting the songs of Robert Burns to boot, she brings romanticism to her joyful performances, this time with her full band in her first show in York for seven years. Eilidh Patterson supports. Box office: ticketsource.co.uk.

Damien O’Kane and Ron Block: Banjovial partnership at the NCEM

Banjo at the double: Damien O’Kane and Ron Block Band, The Banjovial Tour, National Centre for Early Music, York, October 15, 7.30pm

GROUNDBREAKING  banjo  players Damien O’Kane and Ron Block follow up their Banjophony and Banjophonics albums with this month’s Banjovial and an accompanying tour.

O’Kane, renowned for his work with Barnsley songstress Kate Rusby, is a maestro of Irish traditional music, here expressed on his Irish tenor banjo; Block, a key component of Alison Krauss & Union Station, infuses his signature five-string bluegrass banjo with soulful depth and rhythmic innovation. Together, their styles intertwine in an exhilarating dance of technical mastery. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.

Francis Rossi: Solo show of song and chat at York Barbican. Picture: Jodiphotography

Hits and titbits aplenty: An Evening of Francis Rossi’s Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, York Barbican, October 16, 7.30pm

IN his one-man show, Status Quo frontman Francis Rossi performs signature Quo hits, plus personal favourites and deeper cuts, while telling first-hand backstage tales of appearing more than 100 times on Top Of The Pops, why they went on first at Live Aid, life with Rick Parfitt, notching 57 hits, fellow stars and misadventures across the world. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

James Swanton: Halloween beckons, so here comes his double bill of Dickens’ ghost stories at York Medical Society. Picture: Jtu Photography

Ghost stories of the week: James Swanton presents The Signal-Man, York Medical Society, Stonegate, York, October 16, 17, 20 to 23, 7pm; October 27 and 28, 5.30pm and 7.30pm

A RED light. A black tunnel. A waving figure. A warning beyond understanding. Here comes the fear that  someone, that something, is drawing closer. Gothic York storyteller James Swanton returns to York Medical Society with The Signal-Man, “one of the most powerful ghost stories of all time and certainly the most frightening ever written by Charles Dickens”.

Swanton pairs it with The Trial For Murder, wherein Dickens treats the supernatural with just as much terrifying gravity. Tickets update: all ten performances bar October 21 have sold out. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Natnael Dawitin in Shobana Jeyasingh Dance’s We Caliban, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Foteini Christofilopoulou

Dance show of the week: Shobana Jeyasingh Dance in We Caliban, York Theatre Royal, October 17, 7.30pm (with post-show discussion) and October 18, 2pm and 7.30pm

SHOBANA Jeyasingh turns her sharp creative eye to Shakespeare’s final play The Tempest in a new co-production with Sadler’s Wells. A tale of power lost and regained, the play is the starting point for Jeyasingh’s dramatic and contemporary reckoning, We Caliban.

Written as Europe was taking its first step towards colonialism, The Tempest is Prospero’s story. We Caliban is Caliban’s untold story that started and continued long after Prospero’s brief stay. Performed by eight dancers, complemented by Will Duke’s projections and Thierry Pécou’s music, this impressionistic work draws on present-day parallels and the international and intercultural discourse around colonialism, as well as Jeyasingh’s personal experiences. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

John Bramwell: Playing solo in Pocklington

As recommended by Cate Blanchett: John Bramwell, Pocklington Arts Centre, October 17, 8pm

HYDE singer, song-spinner and sage John Bramwell, leading light of Mercury Prize nominees I Am Kloot from 1999 to 2014 and screen goddess Cate Blachett’s “favourite songwriter of all time”, has been on a never-ending rolling adventure since his workings away from his cherished Mancunian band.

His sophomore solo album, February 2024’s The Light Fantastic, will be at the heart of his Pocklington one-man show. . “After both my mum and dad died, I started writing these songs to cheer myself up,” Bramwell admits with trademark candour. “The themes are taken from my dreams at the time. Wake up and take whatever impression I had from what I could remember of my dream and write that.” He promises new material and Kloot songs too. Box office: 01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

Velma Celli: York drag diva lighting up Yorktoberfest at York Racecourse. Picture: Sophie Eleanor

Festival of the week: Yorktoberfest, Clocktower Enclosure, York Racecourse, Knavesmire, York, October 18, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm; October 24, 7pm to 11pm; October 25, 1pm to 5pm and 7pm to 11pm

MAKING its debut in 2021, Yorktoberfest returns for its fifth anniversary with beer, bratwurst and all things Bavarian. Step inside the giant marquee, fill your stein at the Bavarian Bar with beer from Brew York and grab a bite from the German-inspired Dog Haus food stall.

The Bavarian Strollers oompah band will perform thigh-slapping music and drinking songs; York drag diva Velma Celli will add to the party atmosphere with powerhouse songs and saucy patter. Doors open at 6.30pm and 12.30pm. Tickets: ticketsource.co.uk/yorktoberfest.

In Focus: Charlie Higson and Jim Moir: A Very Short But Epic History Of The Monarchy, York Theatre Royal, Oct 13, 7.30pm

In the frame: Author Charlie Higson and artist Jim Moir discuss royalty and comedy at York Theatre Royal on Monday

36 kings. Five queens. Two comedy legends. Join Charlie Higson and Jim Moir (alias Vic Reeves) for the rip-roaring story of every English ruler since Harold was shot in the eye at the Battle of Hastings.

Higson has always been interested in the story of the fabled English monarchy: from the b*stardly to the benevolent,the brilliant to the brutal. “Far from being a nice, colourful pageant of men and women in funny hats waving to adoring crowds, it’s a story of regicide, fratricide, patricide, uxoricide and mariticide (you might have to look those last two up),” he says.

Launched for the coronation of his namesake King Charles III, Charlie’s podcast Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee takes a deep dive into the murky lives of our monarchs. Now, his new book of the show features illustrations by artist Jim Moir, his compadre in comedy.

On Monday, Charlie and Jim will first share stories from their comic collaborations over 30 years, including Shooting Stars, Randell And Hopkirk Deceased and The Smell Of Reeves and Mortimer. Then they will take the plunge into the storied history of this most treasured of institutions. Bloody treachery? Check. Unruly incest? Check. Short parliaments? Check. A couple of Cromwells? Check.

Their rip-roaring journey takes in the Normans, Tudors and Stuarts, not to mention the infamous Blois (how can we forget them?), tin an “utterly engrossing and grossly entertaining primer on who ruled when and why – with never-before-seen illustrations”!

A signed copy of Higson & Moir’s book Willie, Willie, Harry, Stee: An Epically Short History Of Our Kings and Queens (RRP £22) is included when purchasing Band 1 (£55) tickets, available for collection on the night. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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National Centre for Early Music launches new season on October 1. Who’s playing?

Saxophonist Jean Toussaint: First blast of brass in the NCEM’s autumn season on October 1

THE National Centre for Early Music autumn season will open next Wednesday with Grammy-winning saxophonist, composer and bandleader Jean Toussaint’s 7.20pm concert at St Margaret’s Church, Walmgate, York.

Born on the Dutch Antilles island of Aruba, Toussaint grew up in St Thomas, US Virgin Islands, and studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

He moved to London in 1987, since when he has used the capital as his base. For his return to York with his latest project, JT5, he will share the stage with emerging British jazz talent, performing material from his latest album, JT5 Live At The Vortex 10/08/2024, recorded at the London jazz club last summer.

Supported by Ronnie Scott’s Charitable Trust, York Music Forum students will be working with Toussaint earlier in the day to share their work on the NCEM stage from 7.20pm to 7.40pm.

Trumpet player Byron Wallen: Raising the Black Flag at the NCEM on October 24

“Our autumn season welcomes a host of artists from across the world, bringing the highest-quality music-making to the city and continuing to share opportunities for the young, and the not so young, to get involved,” says NCEM director Delma Tomlin.

Pianist Jonny Best will be joined by violinist Susannah Simmons, cellist Liz Hanks and percussionist Trevor Bartlett for Frame Ensemble’s live accompaniment of Northern Silents’ presentation of Julien Duvivier’s 1929 French silent film The Divine Voyage on October 6.

As with Northern Silents’ sold-out performance of South in 2023, Frame Ensemble’s improvised score will capture the atmosphere of Duvivier’s lushly photographed tale of faith and hope about rapacious businessman Claude Ferjac sending his ship, La Cordillere, on a long trading journey, knowing it has been repaired poorly and is likely to sink. An entire village of sailors, desperate to support their families, has no choice but to set sail.

Virtuoso guitarists Gordon Giltrap & John Etheridge team up for 2 Parts Guitar on October 14; Damien O’Kane’s Irish tenor banjo and Ron Block’s five-string bluegrass banjo link up the following night to showcase their third joyously innovative album in seven years, Banjovial, the sequel to the ground-breaking Banjophony and Banjophonics.

Heidi Talbot: Previewing November 21 album Grace Untold at NCEM on October 23

On October 23, Irish singer-songwriter Heidi Talbot returns to the NCEM ahead of the November 21 release of her new album, Grace Untold, a collection of songs based around Irish goddesses and inspirational women, performed in York with Toby Shaer on fiddle and flute and Innes White on guitar.

Byron Wallen, London-born composer, traveller, educator and trumpet and flugelhorn player, heads back to the NCEM on November 24 with a very personal project: an exploration of childhood memories and the emotional strains between a mother and her son, separated by the Atlantic Ocean.

Performed with pianist and keyboard player Nick Ramm, Black Flag is in part a response to the photographic work of Annabel Elgar, whose images will be shared on screen. Emotional, searing, poignant and tough, this will be an evening to reflect and explore the shifting balance of power between the urban and the rural, together with the toxicity of colonialism, but with a glimpse of light before the sun.

“As our 25th year draws to a close, we are particularly pleased to welcome trumpeter and composer Byron Wallen as he shares his very personal exploration of childhood in Black Flag,” says Delma. “Likewise to invite you to enjoy an extraordinarily upbeat show of rhythms in the company of N’Faly Kouyaté and to share the haunting tapestry of sounds from Armenia and Iran with duduk player Arsen Petrosyan.”

N’Faly Kouyaté : Showcasing new album Finishing on November 12

Booked in for November 12, Songlines Music Awards winner N’Faly Kouyaté and Afro Celt Sound System leader N’Faly Kouyaté is a living bridge between ancestral heritage and future sounds, inviting you to a musical odyssey of songs that stir the soul, inspire reflection, elicit smiles and set bodies moving.

Playing balafon, kora, n’gonin, djeli doundoun, djeli tamamba and the toumba (congas), Guinean musician Kouyaté will be showcasing music from his September 12 album Finishing, with his wife Muriel Kouyaté, on djembe and Roland HandSonic, and Jay Chitula on electronic drums and Roland HandSonic.

On November 17, Arsen Petroysan will be joined by Mehdi Rostami, on setar, and Adib Rostami, on kamancheh, to perform haunting melodies and intricate improvisations in a meditative and emotional journey through the ancient Armenian and Iranian cultures.

On November 16, at 6.30pm, wry Kent folk musician Chris Wood – a six-time BBC Folk Award winner and key member of The Imagined Village alongside North Yorkshire’s Martin and Eliza Carthy – offers reflections on minor league football, empty nest syndrome, learning to swim, Cook-in-Sauce and the Gecko as a  metaphor for contemporary society in celebration of “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life”.

The folk focus next falls on The Jeremiahs, the Irish band of Joe Gibney, vocals, Matt Mancuso, fiddle and vocals, Conor Crimmins, flute, and James Ryan, guitar, in their NCEM debut on December 3.

Chris Wood: Celebrating “the sheer one-thing-after-anotherness of life” on November 16

The NCEM teams up with Explore York library service and Mayfield Valley Arts Trust for Baroque Around The Books on December 8 and 9, when Dowland’s Foundry, with tenor Daniel Thompson and lutenist Sam Brown, presents  Facets Of Time in various York libraries to explore the meaning of time through music and poetry. Full details can be found at ncem.co.uk/baroque-around–the-books.

York Early Music Christmas Festival 2025 will run from December 5 to 14, featuring Fieri Consort& Camerta Oresund, Consone & Chiaroscuo Quartets, Marian Consort & ECSE, Apollo’s Cabinet, Helen Charlston, Joglaresa and Apollo5. A full preview will follow in The York Press soon.

Festive folk fixtures Green Matthews – modern-day balladeers Chris Green and Sophie Green – will see out the old year at the NCEM with their Midwinter Revels concert of Christmas carols and winter folk songs on ancient and modern instruments on December 16.

“Our autumn season is creative, engaging and will be hugely rewarding,” says Delma. “We look forward to welcoming you.”

Concerts start at 7.30pm unless stated otherwise. Box office: 01904 658338 or ncem.co.uk.