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ClareStevens

@silverlawn.bsky.social
361 followers 307 following 535 posts

Writer, editor and occasional publicist, specialising in classical music, choral music and music education. Northern Irish by birth, graduate of a Scottish university, now living in the Welsh Marches after 30 years in London.

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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
@lucycaldwell.bsky.social I read All Grown Up this morning and I cannot begin to express how much I loved it and how many resonances it has for me. Although you are so much younger than me, you represent my experience of a Northern Irish identity / heritage better than anyone of my own generation.
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Lucy Caldwell @lucycaldwell.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
In today's Irish Times, an essay I wrote about the winter solstice at Newgrange, the importance of our sacred sites, about surrender, and about finding light in the darkness ✨
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Wrote about my responses to Jan Carson's @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social new novel Few and Far Between and its resonances for me on Substack - my posts are a bit random so there's no paywall, just keep clicking until you can read it: open.substack.com/pub/clareste...
open.substack.com
On Reading Few and Far Between by Jan Carson
Pub: Doubleday h/b 9 April 2026
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Arrived this morning in Presteigne, Wales ... the new novel by one of my favourite authors, @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social It's set around Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland and it begins with a map, always a delight (cf Malcolm Saville's Lone Pine books and John Rowe Townsend's novels for teenagers).
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Royal Philharmonic Society @royalphilsoc.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
We're excited to be at @southbankcentre.bsky.social's Queen Elizabeth Hall next week for the #RPSAwards! On Thurs 12 March we'll celebrate musicians and achievements in classical music nationwide. Tickets from £10 (plus venue fees) available here: royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/awards/rps_m...
RPS Awards graphic, featuring images of past winners (Anna Lapwood, Nicola Benedetti, Sheku Kanneh-Mason) holding RPS 'lyres' trophies. Text reads - 'Join us Next Week for Classical Music's biggest night, Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.00pm 12 March Tickets from £10 plus venue fees.' At the bottom is the 2026 RPS Awards logo, a white lyre with text which reads ' Royal Philharmonic Society Awards 2026.' Blue background.
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Royal Philharmonic Society @royalphilsoc.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Applications for Sound and Music's 'In the Making' development programme – for young music and sound creators in the UK aged 14-18 – are open until Monday 20 April 2026. Discover more at: soundandmusic.org/programmes/i...
soundandmusic.org
In the Making - Sound and Music
In the Making is the UK's only year-long artist development programme for young music creators aged 14–18. Each year, 50 young creators with a passion for music come together from all over the UK for ...
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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
'Storm light' by UK contemporary printmaker Mikki Bowers #WomensArt
Print featuring the silhouette of a bare hedgerow under a purple sky filled with birds flying in group formation
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churchtimes.bsky.social @churchtimes.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
A £400,000 grant to increase children’s participation in church choirs was announced by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (#SMMIB) on Sunday 🎶 #churchtimes #churchnews #music
churchtimes.co.uk
SMMIB grant awarded to get more children singing in church choirs
A £400,000 grant to increase children’s participation in church choirs was announced by the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board (SMMIB) on Sunday. The “Choir Project” — a partnership with the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) — aims ...
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Larry the Cat @number10cat.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
15 years ago today I arrived on Downing Street in a cage. I've seen off Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak and I'm still going strong. Only two Prime Ministers have ever done longer stints here: William Pitt the Younger and Sir Robert Walpole. Bill and Bob - I'm coming for you... (Photos AP)
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Royal Philharmonic Society @royalphilsoc.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Our friends and RPS Advance Corporate Members Swaledale Festival invite you to join them for a fortnight of music, arts and walking across North Yorkshire, with public booking open today! You can find out more and book via our website: royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk/whats_on/swa...
royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk
Swaledale Festival 2026
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Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
🚐 ⛰️ 🌊 📸 🏛️ ❄️ 🌼 More info here: www.digest.andymarsh...
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The Gesualdo Six @thegesualdosix.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Ticking off another English cathedral! Last week we gave our first concert in the magnificent Lichfield Cathedral. Over recent years we've built a strong relationship with the cathedral, which hosted the first of our Choral Singing Days initiatives with The G6 Charity.
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Andy Marshall @fotofacade.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
📝 Field Notes from my Camper-van-camino: 📸 My services for free at Broadwell in Oxfordshire. www.digest.andymarsh...
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
@jancarsonwrites.bsky.social Most of my acquaintances won’t understand how completely bonkers it feels for me as a Presbyterian from Finaghy to have an article published in The Tablet about a pipe organ in a convent in London, but I know you will! www.thetablet.co.uk/arts/all-sto...
thetablet.co.uk
What is a rare French organ doing in the chapel of a London Catholic school? - The Tablet
Bentley’s chapel, meanwhile, is due to have its ineffectual mixture of fluorescent strips and theatre spotlights replaced by elegant pendant lights, similar
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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 10/11/2025
Trump wants to destroy the BBC and take our money. And Nigel Farage is egging him on. All true patriots should tell them both: hands off our BBC.
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Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 10/11/2025
"We had never read anything quite like it," said Roddy Doyle www.npr.org/2025/11/10/n...
npr.org
'Flesh' wins 2025 Booker Prize: 'We had never read anything quite like it'
David Szalay uses spare and sparse language to follow one Hungarian-British man from his teen years through middle age. The prestigious prize honors the best English-language novels published in the U...
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Michael Hogan @michaelhogan100.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Gillian Anderson at her most heartbreaking! Blue Lights faces among cast! But Lola Petticrew steals the show! Here's my review of new drama #Trespasses, which airs from Sunday to Wednesday on Channel 4 www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfi...
standard.co.uk
Trespasses on Channel 4 review: Gillian Anderson at her most heartbreaking
This story of forbidden love in Troubles-era Belfast is raw, warm and ultimately uplifting
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richard mortimer @richardmortimer.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
The Joy of Cambridge: Egyptian-style Art Deco Cinema that the owners want to demolish to maximise profits. Maximising profits is what has killed the earth and its cultures.
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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
A quick reminder that this wee gem goes out this afternoon at 3:45pm. If you miss it you can catch up later on BBC Sounds.
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Shantha Mohan, Ph.D., DTM @shlead.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” ― Cicero Wishing you a relaxing evening and a fabulous Friday with this reddish pink dahlia delight from Gamble Garden! #dailyflowers 🌱 #flowerreport #bloomscrolling
A reddish-pink Dahlia Teddy and green leaves.

Camera: iPhone 15 Pro.

From Gamble Garden on a visit in September 2025.
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churchtimes.bsky.social @churchtimes.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Rosie Dawson reviews two programmes about #Wales, #art, and love offered some welcome respite in a week otherwise dominated by noisy discussion about speech and its consequences #Radio #Reviews 📻🎨
churchtimes.co.uk
Radio review: Artwork: Love’s Moment: R. S. Thomas and Mildred Eldridge and In the Studio: Jon Foreman: Art that goes out with the tide
Two programmes about Wales, art, and love offer Rosie Dawson some welcome respite
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Breathtaking colours on the Isle of Arran today.
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 15/09/2025
After a couple of hours of torrential rain, the skies cleared slightly yesterday afternoon to create this autumnal riverscape at Ogmore, South Glamorgan.
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 12/09/2025
Thanks very much to @theartsdesk.bsky.social for running my review of this year's very inspiring Presteigne Festival (Disclaimer: I live in Presteigne, but I have nothing to do with running the festival, so this is genuinely impartial!) www.theartsdesk.com/classical-mu...
theartsdesk.com
Presteigne Festival 2025 review - new music is centre stage in the Welsh Marches
If you were a devotee of Dmitri Shostakovich whose only opportunity to attend some live performances marking this year’s 50th anniversary of his death was spending the weekend of 21 - 25 August at the...
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Tom McKinney @tommckinney.bsky.social · 10/09/2025
It's Wednesday's Breakfast on BBCRadio3. Good morning! New releases from cellist Pablo Ferrandez & Andrew Davis's final project. There's violinist Lisa Batiashvili playing Prokofiev & remembering Choo Hoey the conductor& mover-shaker who had a huge impact on music in the Far East
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Graham Rickson 🇮🇪 @grahamrickson.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
www.theguardian.com/music/2025/a...
theguardian.com
Why doesn’t the BBC blaze the glories of its orchestras year round, not just at the Proms?
The orchestras and choirs of the Danish Broadcasting Corporation are at the centre of Denmark’s cultural life. As its Symphony Orchestra comes to the Proms, what the BBC can learn from its European co...
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The Gesualdo Six @thegesualdosix.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Scaling the heights! 🏔️ We loved our stint in the mountains earlier this month. On a free morning we climbed one of the mighty mountains – a little adventure to balance the music-making! 🎶✨ Later this week we’ll be in Rouen for a performance of ‘Mirror of Time’.
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
The stage is set at St Andrew’s Church for Presteigne Festival to begin tomorrow … presteignefestival.com
Church with van at the doorPresteigne Festival brochureWooden porch and courtyardPortable loos
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Mr. Symphonist @deeplyclassical.bsky.social · 20/08/2025
Good morning Bluesky. I'm not generally a fan of Bach transcriptions for orchestra, which to my ears make JSB sound stodgy, soggy and bloated, so I'm surprised by how much I'm enjoying this. A fine tribute to much-missed Sir Andrew Davis. #NowListening #NewReleases2025
Record cover. King of Kings - JS Bach Orchestral Transcriptions
BBC Philharmonic, Sir Andrew Davis, Martyn Brabbins. Chandos CHAN20400.

https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9779886--king-of-kings-js-bach-orchestral-transcriptions
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John Bull @garius.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Worth remembering that Terence Stamp was the son of a ship's stoker. Stamp desperately wanted to act, after falling in love with movies as a kid, and it was a scholarship to Drama School that allowed him to walk that path. Every time arts cuts are made, they rob us of more Terence Stamps.
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Mel @rainydaycottage.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Best of the garden mid August 🌼 #Bloomscrolling #garden #gardening #zone3 #canadiangarden #cottagegarden #cutflowers #grownnotflown 🌱🇨🇦
Flower arrangement with dahlias, zinnias, bergamot, yarrow, scabiosa, echinacea, tomatillo, cerinthe.
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Tom McKinney @tommckinney.bsky.social · 19/08/2025
Day 2 of our BBCRadio3 Breakfast roadtrip. Welcome to Westonbirt National Arboretum! Too dark for photos right now, so here's the setup from yesterday afternoon. 6.30-9 30 with live music from the Bristol Ensemble 🌲🌳🌴
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Tom McKinney @tommckinney.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Welcome to WWTSlimbridge and day one of BBCRadio3 Breakfast from Gloucestershire, Somerset and taking you to the Proms at Bristol next weekend. And this morning there's live music from folk stars Miranda Rutter, Sam Sweeney and Rob Harbron. 6.30-9.30am all week
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moorsandedges.bsky.social @moorsandedges.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Walking from Sheffield to Edale via Stanage Edge, Bamford, Back Tor and finishing at the start of the Pennine Way
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Peter Stefanovic @peterstefanovic.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft has quit her job as a government whip in opposition to the government's plans to cut disability benefits The Labour MP wrote in a letter to the prime minister she could not vote "for reforms which include cuts to disabled people's finances" 👏 news.sky.com/story/labour...
news.sky.com
Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft quits as government whip over cuts to disability benefits
The Labour MP wrote in a letter to the prime minister that she could not vote "for reforms which include cuts to disabled people's finances".
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Tom McKinney @tommckinney.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
Already really warm at 5.30am. The Salford sunflowers are loving it. Breakfast BBCRadio3 is live till 9.30. The dawn chorus was an Eastern Meadowlark in the US of A, Bach Before 7 is from his 1st Orchestral Suite, and there's a hot wind blowing in a song by Monteverdi. 🌻🌻🌻
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Royal College of Music @rcmlondon.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Farewell to legendary pianist Alfred Brendel, one of the great musicians of our time, who has died aged 94. Brendel was made HonDMus in 1999, and we were privileged to welcome him back to the Royal College of Music in 2011 for an illuminating masterclass.
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Really interesting appointment of Gabriel Crouch as artistic director and principal conductor in succession to Paul Hillier, announced today by Chamber Choir Ireland, a unique professional ensemble who always perform really interesting programmes: www.chamberchoirireland.com/new-artistic...
chamberchoirireland.com
Chamber Choir Ireland announces new Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
We are thrilled to announce the appointment of the internationally renowned conductor Gabriel Crouch as Chamber Choir Ireland's new Artistic Director and Principal Conductor.
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Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Very pleased to say that my new publishers, Swift Press, will be republishing my novel Villager this September. The link is now up if you'd like to preorder (and the ebook will be available a little earlier): www.amazon.co.uk/Villager-Tom...
amazon.co.uk
Villager: Amazon.co.uk: Cox, Tom: 9781800756076: Books
Buy Villager by Cox, Tom from Amazon's Fiction Books Store. Everyday low prices on a huge range of new releases and classic fiction.
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Shay O’Reilly @shaygabriel.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Hello from Berlin where a few hundred Americans are outside the embassy, currently reading aloud from the Declaration of Independence. #nokings
A few hundred Americans of all ages standing in dappled sun with flags and signs
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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 14/06/2025
Massive #NoKings march in New York City!
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Bridge Books Dromore @bridgebooksdromore.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
It may be very small. It doesn't have lots of rooms or loads of space, but it's all mine. I'm very proud that I own, not only this tiny bookshop, but the building that houses it. It has come a long way, and I think that's something to be proud of this #IndependentBookshopWeek!
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
Big day in Leominster, Herefordshire with the start of the Priory’s 900th anniversary celebrations, a month of performances, talks, walks and stunning exhibitions of art and craft exploring its history and heritage. Details here: prioryarts.org.uk
Medieval church exteriorPriory 900 bannerModel of a lionModern stone carvings in an old church
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churchtimes.bsky.social @churchtimes.bsky.social · 14/06/2025
In the parish: How to make the church building more welcoming
churchtimes.co.uk
In the parish: How to make the church building more welcoming
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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 13/06/2025
Hats off to Sophie and the team at Crescent Arts centre, the last week of #Belfastbookfestival has been the most inspiring, inclusive and positive celebration of writing, thinking and story. This is what I want this place to be.
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Alan Cleaver @postalpathsguy.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Wish this letter good luck! It's asking Royal Mail for special issue stamps to celebrate Britain's postal paths. @letterappsoc.bsky.social
An Illustrated envelope addressed to the Royal Mail
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Irish Literary Times @irishlittimes.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
34 Writers Selected for Irish Writers Centre’s National Mentoring Programme 2025 irishwriterscentre.ie/34-writers-s...
irishwriterscentre.ie
34 Writers Selected for Irish Writers Centre’s National Mentoring Programme 2025 - Irish Writers Centre
Each selected writer will receive one-to-one mentoring from an established writer, offering invaluable creative and professional guidance over the coming months.
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Royal Philharmonic Society @royalphilsoc.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Young musicians aged 10-25 can still apply to be part of ABRSM's Youth Advisory Board, championing the voices of children and young people in important conversations about music and music education. Find out more and apply by Monday 30 June: abrsm.org/youthvoice
Boy playing the flute. wearing a yellow T-shirt.
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ClareStevens @silverlawn.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
@jancarsonwrites.bsky.social So lovely to unexpectedly hear you on Front Row just now! A really good discussion given the right amount of time, and definitely whetted my appetite for seeking out the documentary.
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Ed Davey @eddavey.libdems.org.uk · 03/06/2025
We’ve gone from 25% steel tariffs, to 0%, up to 50%, and now back to 25%. We’ve all seen this routine before. Trump causes chaos, Nigel nods along, and British workers pay the price. It’s time the government got serious about trade with our European and Commonwealth allies.
Tweet from Alex Wickham: "NEW: The White House says US tariffs on UK steel and aluminium will remain at 25% for now

The UK has failed to get the 0% tariffs promised in the US ‘deal’ last month implemented in time for tomorrow

Still, all other countries will be hit by 50% tariffs

So everyone’s a loser"
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