CANBERRA trumpeter Ben Marston has been nominated as one of just 16 2014 Freedman Jazz Candidates. The winner will be announced at Sydney Opera House on August 20.

THE Choir of King’s College, Cambridge will be in town on July 31 with Musica Viva. The famous choristers entertain millions every Christmas Eve on BBC TV. Highlights will be three Christmas carols by Aussie composers, Peter Sculthorpe’s “The Birthday of thy King”, Brett Dean’s “Now Comes the Dawn” and Carl Vine’s “Ring Out, Wild Bells”. Bookings to 1800 688482 or musicaviva.com.au

CANBERRA’S theatrical community is saddened by the death of veteran director Colin Anderson, who staged more than 10 shows with Canberra Repertory and six musicals in the Canberra Theatre for Canberra Philharmonic, not least his ground-breaking 1994 production of “Les Miserables”.

AARNE Neeme is back at Canberra Rep for the eleventh time to direct Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia”. The play, a favourite with the company, totters between past and present and even ventures into a rare theatrical subject, mathematics. At Theatre 3, August 1-16, bookings to 6257 1950 or canberrarep.org.au

IRREPRESSIBLE contemporary folk singer Fred Smith is at Canberra Theatre’s Courtyard Studio until July 27 with a revamped version of his “Dust of Uruzgan” show, complemented by projected photographs from Afghanistan. Smith wrote the songs while working for DFAT and playing concerts on the multinational base in Tarin Kowt. Bookings to 6275 2700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au

THE 2014 Mindscapes Festival is planning a project called “Move – Speak – Act”, an acting course for people who have experienced mental health issues and people who have cared for them. There’ll be a public performance on October 18. Don’t worry if you have never acted before, director Robin Davidson says. Registrations to 6173 3320 or ann.mcmahon@belconnenartscentre.com.au

THE democratic Playing Field Studio in Kingsley Street, Acton, is running workshops as part of its Arts Exchange program. Nat Clark will teach how to make a “zine” (small magazine),10am-12.30pm, on August 2 and September 6, and Canberra textile designer Julie Ryder will teach how to use block-printing on paper. The cost is $2 per workshop and open to everyone. Registrations to playingfieldstudio@gmail.com

CASULA Powerhouse Arts Centre, near Liverpool, has an exhibition running until September 7 that it’s describing as “a cross-cultural feast for the senses”. It features paintings, sculptures and installations by Canberra’s Vivienne Binns and Adelaide’s Hossein Valamanesh exploring Australian and Iranian-Asian cultures.