HELEN MUSA’s “Arts in the City” column this week leads with some “Hot” news coming out of Queanbeyan.

THE Q, in Queanbeyan, will swing into summer with “Summertime: a Hot Night of Gershwin Favourites” to be performed by two virtuosi – concert pianist, Simon Tedeschi and jazz vocalist and violinist, George Washingmachine. They’ll play Gershwin favourites and classic jazz standards by Cole Porter, Oscar Peterson and Fats Waller in “The B” (the refurbished Bicentennial Hall) on Friday, December 3. Book at qprc.sales.ticketsearch.com

THE local radio drama program on ArtSound FM, which has celebrated its first birthday, is a 30-minute episode heard on Sundays at 4pm (and repeated on Tuesdays at 4pm). It features one or two short plays, some original works by local playwrights such as Harriet Elvin, Kirsty Budding and John Lombard, and others either sourced from the ArtSound archives or new productions of classics. The program’s producer, Bart Meehan, is keen to hear from writers with plays no longer than 25 minutes, or scripts suitable for serialising. Contact admin@artsound.fm or 6295 7444.

CANBERRA Art Workshop has chosen painter Sonya Jane Thoms for the inaugural Mavis Hall Arts Trust Grant, which provides materials for a year. Relatively new to painting, though a graduate in a BA in textiles and printmaking from the ANU, Thoms plans to produce a series in the portraiture genre, a video blog and visual journal during what she calls “my year of living curiously”. 

“RE-AWAKENING” is the post-lockdown title of a concert of works by Bach, Saint-Saëns and Morricone to be performed on violin, harp, and oboe by Lucy Macourt, Rowan Phemister, and Zoë Loxley Slump at Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, 12.40pm-1.20pm, on Wednesday, November 24. Book at trybooking.com or 6232 7248.

JAZZ artist Elise Walsh tells us her group, Bella Groove – herself, John Black, James Luke, Matt Lustri and Steve Richards – have released a live EP recorded at Smith’s Alternative just before lockdown. The EP has six original tunes, with co-arrangements by Black. Access the EP via  bellagroove.bandcamp.com

AT last, the postponed performances of “The Stranger” by actor Christopher Samuel Carroll will go ahead in early December. The Stranger” is Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus’ masterpiece, adapted for the stage as a one-man tour-de-force by Carroll. At Ralph Wilson Theatre, Gorman Arts Centre, December 8-11. Book at events.humanitix.com