And now for something significantly different, as John Cleese might have said. Antony Pay, principal clarinet of the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment takes us through the staple instrument of Mozart’s time – the five key clarinet.

Do watch, even if you’re not sure whether old woodwind instruments float your boat. It’s a masterclass in the art of explanation. As one viewer wrote: “This man could tell me absolutely anything and I’d believe him.” Check out the OAE’s other fascinating videos here.

Stroud artist and musician Angie Spencer will bring her exhibition, “The Art of Listening – Paintings Inspired by Music“, to the Goods Shed in September.

Our latest virtual gallery previews some of the works Angie will be showing. Visit it to discover which musical work provided the inspiration for each one.

Folk duo Ninebarrow have released a lovely, collaborative lock-down single in aid of the mental health charity, Mind. Recent surveys show anxiety and isolation due to coronavirus are already affecting the public, with charities expressing concern that people are struggling to get the support they need.

Though their concert with Hart Voices and the Chantry Singers was postponed, Ninebarrow got everyone together online to support the fight against this emerging mental health crisis. Watch the video below and go to Ninebarrow’s site to download the track for free — and, if you feel able to, make a donation to a very worthy cause.

If it weren’t for coronavirus, Hookshouse Pottery outside Tetbury would be holding its spring Art Exhibition and Open Garden over the bank holiday weekend.

Chris and Lise White are making arrangements for pre-booked individual visits but in the meantime you can visit our ‘virtual open garden’ of their photos and read Chris’s update on progress.

This week, award-winning South West singer-songwriter Stuart Earl has compiled and recorded a 45-minute show for the Goods Shed.

Here’s a taste of his show, which is available here. Your next chance to see his trio live at the Shed will be on 17 October.

Joy Lisney is a musical tour de force. An international cellist since her teens, Joy now also conducts and composes. Most recently, her four-track, lockdown recording of the BBC Test Match Special theme went viral on Twitter. 

We were honoured to welcome Joy and her father James to the Shed  in 2017, through her long standing connection with Tetbury-based composer Jan Vriend.  Here are the Lisneys performing Rachmaninoff’s Cello Sonata, Op. 19, at King’s Place, London in 2015.

Did we mention that you can enjoy films on the big screen at the shed every Thursday night, in proper comfy cinema seats with a drink from the bar? Well, you can in normal times, anyway.

One of the most visually arresting films we’ve shown is Loving Vincent, the world’s first (and probably only) wholly-oil-painted animation film. Films will return to the Shed as soon as possible, though it’s a safe bet to say we won’t be showing Contagion or Home Alone!

“Out of this World”, our exhibition of works by leading modern aviation artist David Bent, is scheduled to open at the Shed on 22 July – although it’s still anyone’s guess whether public events will be permitted again by then.

The show will feature many of the vivid original canvases from David’s longstanding collaboration with the Red Arrows. Until then, visit our virtual gallery for a preview of some of the pictures, and be sure to visit davidbentstudio.com to see the full range of his output.

Last seen at the Shed in January putting on a dazzling display of swinging Gypsy Jazz numbers with violinist Ben Holder, Stuart has freely given his time to set up and beautifully record a session for the Goods Shed audience.

The video below is just a taste: visit our session page for the full session. If you haven’t  already done so, join our free subscriber list for reminders and updates. 

During lockdown the Arts Society is publishing a series of videos by its Accredited Lecturers. In this film, writer and historian Sarah Dunant takes you to Venice to tell the story of a city dressed and undressed.

Visit Arts Society Talks for more videos. Or you can find out more about our local arts societies in Malmesbury and Cirencester.

One of the last events at the Shed before the shutdown was a recital by the immensely talented Ivana Gavrić at our Steinway instrument.

In this delightful video, she plays and discusses her personal selection of Grieg’s piano works for her third CD. Visit www.ivanagavric.com for more.

Should we have regional as well as national treasures? If so, then we unhesitatingly nominate writer, illustrator and performer, Bill Jones from Stroud – Private Eye cartoonist and grand master of the art of growing Victorians in your back garden.

Visit our virtual gallery for examples of his distinctive pen and ink drawings plus links to his published writing and his website, with autumn dates for his delightful live show, “Growing Victorians”. For the full flavour, visit billjonesillustration.com.

Here’s a session recorded especially for the Goods Shed by British blues rock singer songwriter Keith Thompson.

Huge thanks to Keith for recording this for us!

”Glimpsing the Spire”, Alison’s show here last summer, featured a selection of large new canvases she worked on especially for the Shed.

“I cycle around the area and love the way you spot Tetbury spire from so many places and from some big distances from the town,” she said.

“The spire also has a lovely story in that it has a connection with the original owner of Highgrove and there is a covenant that prevents anyone blocking the view of the spire from the house.”

Click through to our virtual gallery to see a selection of her landscapes and still lives and ways to follow her on social media. And be sure to visit alisonvickery.co.uk

Gerard Logan brought his one man show ‘Night Terrors‘ to the Shed in January, just days before coronavirus arrived in Britain. He is widely acknowledged as an outstanding exponent of the solo performance, and has won acclaim and awards for his shows: The Rape of Lucrece and Wilde Without the Boy (Gareth Armstrong’s dramatisation of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis).

He returns to the Shed on 7 November in Wildean mode to give us Wilde without the Boy and The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Until then, here he is on video, lighting up our lockdowns with Shakespeare’s early poem of dishonour and retribution in ancient Rome. Click on Botticelli’s depiction of Lucretia’s tragic end, below, to open the video.

Glamorous Gloucestershire saxophonist Kim Cypher is creating quite a stir on the jazz scene, emerging as one of the UK’s most exciting saxophonists, vocalists and composers and firmly securing a reputation for top quality, stylish, accessible jazz and musical entertainment.

Kim, whose second album, Love, Kim, was listed as one of 2019’s top albums, studied St Paul’s & St Mary’s College in Cheltenham. Prior to turning professional as a musician, Kim taught music in Gloucester, at Cheltenham Boys College and at the Cheltenham Rock School.

Sadly there isn’t a Beardsley exhibition scheduled for the Shed at any time. And although there is one at the Tate Gallery, no-one’s allowed in to see it at the moment.

We can’t help admiring the doomed artist’s feverishly sensual drawings though, so today we’re widening our outlook by linking to the Tate’s online tour and film of their show. Click on Beardsley’s ‘Peacock Skirt’ below if you’d like to visit.

Rob Collins’ show at the Shed, scheduled for 26th February to 29th March was cut short by the crisis so we’ve created a small virtual gallery of his work here or you can see many more of his paintings and read the stories that go with them at his website robcollinsart.com.

Through his traditional painting skills, built up over a lifetime, Rob’s work is a celebration of the process of seeing and the craft of painting. At best he creates pictures with a freshness and lightness of technique that draw you in with their realism and when you get up close and see the marks that make up the surface you think, how on earth did he do that?

An absolute treat today – Elles Bailey’s latest video for her song Woman Like Me, released on 3 April. You can support Elles through her PayPal Me donation link: all the money raised during this time will go to her tour family.

She is also doing Live Streams on Facebook. Her next one is next week, on Friday 1 May. You can sign up here to be notified when it’s about to start (click on the “Track” button).​

All Elles’ music is set to download from her site www.ellesbailey.com, including previously unreleased material. Again all money raised from that will go to my band family.