On my radar: Charles Hazlewood’s cultural highlights

Charles Hazlewood, 58, is a British conductor and the founder and artistic director of Paraorchestra, a collective of disabled and non-disabled professional musicians that performed at the 2012 Paralympics. He won an organ scholarship to Oxford. As a conductor he has performed all over the world, including in South African townships, and has presented music shows and documentaries for the BBC. This Friday, Hazlewood conducts Paraorchestra and folk duo The Breath at Bristol Beacon, as part of the BBC Proms. 

The Turner prize 2025 in Bradford

This has been one of the best City of Culture years. The work on show in Bradford feels like it was made by the city for the city; it’s not just about people coming in from outside and deluging Bradford with art. That said, it’s brilliant that they’re bringing in the Turner prize next month [from 27 September], and it looks to be very special indeed. My money’s on Rene Matić [to win]. I saw some of their work in Berlin. The photographs are incredibly human but with a beguiling sense of secrecy to them.

The Unicorn on the Beach, Porthtowan, Cornwall

I have been through a very challenging couple of years in my personal life and I’ve retreated down to Cornwall, where my roots are. This beautiful pub (pictured below), with its lovely staff, has done so much to cheer me up. It’s pretty much on the beach, facing the wild Atlantic. The pub is Victorian but there’s a glass extension and lots of outside space. I like wrapping up, sitting outside with a pint and staring out to sea with techno playing full-blast in my ears.

Shahrazad (Live) by Fairuz

I have a new and wonderful Lebanese girlfriend, who, among many great things, has introduced me to Fairuz. I’m late to the party but my goodness, what an artist, with a sublime sense of curiosity and a voice you could climb inside. On this live record, she goes all over the world, musically, and even takes on Mozart’s 40th Symphony. It’s hard to add anything to that great jewel of symphonic work, but she does. It’s raw, earthy, poetic and exquisite. She’s one of the greatest of all Lebanese singers.

The Girl with the Needle (dir. Magnus von Horn, 2024)

This stunning black-and-white, horror-adjacent film is about a destitute girl who appears to find solace with a woman who takes in unwanted babies. It’s set in Denmark and Magnus von Horn, the director, must be an admirer of the great Danish film-maker Carl Theodor Dreyer. You see the influence in the way he captures faces: very close up, often from slightly underneath, so you get these strange and quite scary views of people. It’s very dark and stark, but a really incredible film.

Summer in the Scene Dock, Theatre Royal Plymouth

Kyla Goodey is an astonishing Cornish theatre-maker. Here, in collaboration with artist Azza Gasim and Theatre Royal Plymouth, she creates a banging fringe festival, a lovely spit-and-sawdust counterpoint to all the shiny stuff they have on their main stages. It takes place right behind the theatre but it’s like an end-of-the-pier show: there’s comedy, music, dance, solo pieces, ensemble work, improvisation, roaming performers. It’s light, lovely and delicious, and it’s cheap as chips.

Luke Slater at E1, London, 12 September

Luke Slater is one of the big beasts of techno. I have swooned with pleasure at many a live set of his at Berghain in Berlin. It’s not often that he performs in London these days, but he’s doing this set next month and I can’t wait for it. I’ve been into techno since the early days. The power, the delicacy, the sophistication of what Slater does is, I think, second to none. I’ll be the sweaty old bloke near the front.

Photographs by Capital/Getty Images