http://www.freerangecanterbury.org/

Free Range, Canterbury (2026)

08/06/2026

This week (Thursday 11th June): is a visual artist well known on the international jazz and free improvisation music scene for painting live at gigs.

Gina says ‘I work with the frisson of the music, observing the relationship between the musician and instrument. I try to capture the energy and essence of the gig in real time … In performance situations I use my materials and surfaces sonically’.

Free Range has invited Gina to curate an evening of live painting, performance and music and she has chosen two of the most extraordinary musicians in the UK: tuba player (Anna Meredith, Jon Batiste, Soweto Kinch, Jason Moran, Solange, Arlo Parks) and the double bassist (Jack DeJohnette, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Mingus Big Band, Terence Blanchard).

https://freerangecanterbury.org/fr307/

🎥Gina painting at We Out Here

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

03/06/2026

THURSDAY 04.06.26 FR #306 The Wickerwork Man: a mumming play /

It is time to keep your appointment with… The Wickerwork Man. The Wickerwork Man is Trudgepig Folk Theatre’s take on a cult folk horror classic. The search for a missing child leads The Sergeant on a merry dance through the remote and idyllic Mummerisle. Can the upstanding outsider resist the lure of the comely Landlord’s Daughter? What sinister secrets are the islanders hiding? And what really happens here, on May Day? Trudgepig Folk Theatre irreverently reinterpret traditional mumming plays, bringing a healthy dose of absurdism to English folk traditions. Expect masks and tatters, song and dance, and plenty of unruly audience interaction.

Melinda Bronstein is an experimental musician based in Margate. Through haphazard live looping she creates beautiful melancholy atmospheres using casiotone, found objects and 'noises & toyses', finding magic in the mundane through brooding, ethereal songs exploring loss, hope, conflict and realignment.

freerangecanterbury.org/fr306

Free entry, donations welcome, reserve seats in advance via website.

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

02/06/2026

This week sees the June edition of our Open Stage event (7pm Saturday 6th June at The Mooring Cafe, Water Lane, Canterbury). The theme this month is SUN.

All forms of adventurous performance practice are welcome. We find these events consistently funny, surprising and heart-warming.

Contact Kat Peddie if you'd like to take part ([email protected]).

Design textures .graphics

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

02/06/2026

This week sees the June edition of our Open Stage event (7pm Saturday 6th June at The Mooring Cafe, Water Lane, Canterbury). The theme this month is SUN.

All forms of adventurous performance practice are welcome. We find these events consistently funny, surprising and heart-warming.

Contact Kat Peddie if you'd like to take part ([email protected]).

Design textures .graphics

28/05/2026

THURSDAY 28.05.26 FR #305 (family band) / David Leahy solo

Seaming To is a London-born composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. She gained early recognition performing with the supergroups Homelife (Ninja Tune) and 808 State’s Graham Massey’s Toolshed. Her work has been performed and presented at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank Centre), the National Theatre, Tate Modern, the Barbican (London), and MoMA (New York). For this performance she is joined onstage by her young family.

David Leahy is a double bassist, dancer, researcher and educator. Originally from New Zealand, David studied classical music, jazz, celtic folk and many forms of improvised dance practice before specialising in multi-disciplinary performance. His new show combines theatre, movement and music to tell the story of one of the most intimate relationships between a human and an object: between a musician and their instrument.

freerangecanterbury.org/fr305

Free entry, donations welcome, reserve seats in advance via website.

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

26/05/2026

Free Range is recruiting for a trustee with financial experience.

We’re a charity presenting adventurous music and combined arts events in Canterbury. Supporting our small, dynamic team is a fantastic board of trustees who meet four times a year.

We’re looking for someone who is both passionate about the arts and has experience in managing finances to become a trustee and treasurer for the charity.

This role is voluntary. If you’re interested, please contact [email protected].

Thank you!
📷 .graphics

21/05/2026

THURSDAY 21.05.26 FR #304 BENCHES by Sam Loveless with the Free Range Orchestra / FRØffshǒüt

BENCHES is a multi-format, neurodivergent-focussed collaboration between composer and artist Tim Hart, centred around Tim’s longstanding passion for photographing benches. The project explores how fascination, repetition, and variety shape a unique and deeply personal creative practice. For this performance, Sam works with the Free Range Orchestra to create an audiovisual work that invites the audience into Tim’s artistic universe – characterised by joyful curiosity, meticulous collecting, and the artistry hidden in everyday objects.

FRØffshǒüt are an unruly offshoot of the Free Range Orchestra featuring theremin, bass, drums and saxophones.

freerangecanterbury.org/fr304

Free entry, donations welcome, reserve seats in advance via website.

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

14/05/2026

THURSDAY 14.05.26 #303 Cracked Glaze by Matt Wright / Sam Bailey’s Unruly Trio - doors 7pm, performance from 8pm . Refreshments available throughout the evening.

Composer, producer and sound designer Matthew Wright introduces his new project Cracked Glaze, including a Q&A with the composer and an immersive playback of the 46-minute album, released in May on CD/digital by False Walls (Faversham). Cracked Glaze was performed by vocalist Sofia Jernberg, Ensemble Klang (Netherlands) and Wright’s improv/electronic group Spheric Totemic. The piece is built around a ‘spine’ of one long, descending scale, which is combined with other notation and improvisation.

Sam Bailey’s Unruly Trio is a new project featuring bassist David Leahy and clarinetist Tom Jackson. Using earlier styles of jazz as starting points, they find ways of tearing the music apart before patching it back up again.

freerangecanterbury.org/fr303/

Free entry, donations welcome, reserve seats in advance via website.

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

📷 Tessa Veldhorst / Musical Utopias 📷 Simon Shaw | Design Elements .graphics

07/05/2026

THURSDAY 07.05.26 #302 Phil Minton's Feral Choir / .michener.klavikon - doors 7pm, performance from 8pm . Refreshments available throughout the evening.

Since the first Feral Choir about 35 years ago, singer and vocal experimenter Phil Minton, has led them in Japan, Brazil, France, Belgium, Germany, United States, Netherlands and Poland. Using the full range of sounds that the human voice is capable of, a Feral Choir is formed just a few days before each performance. If you would like to take part in the Feral Choir, come to Fruitworks for a rehearsal from 5-7pm. No previous singing experience is necessary, participation is free.

Leon Michener is a London-born pianist whose music spans recordings of 20th-century classical music through to free jazz. For this performance, he will be playing on an amplified portable Clavichord, prepared with found objects, which has also been “hacked” to include a custom-assembled electro-acoustic-mechanical percussion instrument in its lid.

freerangecanterbury.org/fr302/

Free entry, donations welcome, reserve seats in advance via website.

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

📷 Simon Shaw | Design Elements .graphics

06/05/2026

PREVIEW: FR305 Seaming To (family band) / David Leahy solo | 28.05.26, doors 7pm at Fruitworks, Canterbury CT1 2NP

Seaming To is a London-born composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. She gained early recognition performing with the supergroups Homelife (Ninja Tune) and 808 State’s Graham Massey’s Toolshed. Her work has been performed and presented at the Queen Elizabeth Hall (Southbank Centre), the National Theatre, Tate Modern, the Barbican (London), and MoMA (New York). For this performance she is joined onstage by her young family.

David Leahy is a double bassist, dancer, researcher and educator. Originally from New Zealand, David studied classical music, jazz, celtic folk and many forms of improvised dance practice before specialising in multi-disciplinary performance. His new show combines theatre, movement and music to tell the story of one of the most intimate relationships between a human and an object: between a musician and their instrument.

https://freerangecanterbury.org/fr305/

A big thank you to , our community and generous supporters for allowing us to present more events this Summer.

Free Range

08/06/2026

03/06/2026

02/06/2026

02/06/2026

28/05/2026

26/05/2026

21/05/2026

14/05/2026

07/05/2026

06/05/2026

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