Places are limited for this Zoom event. If you would like to receive a link please email charlburyarts@outlook.com Registration will close at noon on Tuesday 8^th December. Non members of Charlbury Art Society are invited to make a voluntary donation of £5 to help defray our expenses. Details will be provided with the link.

Elena Piras will talk about her life and play some of the music she has written as well as other work she finds inspiring

Elena is an award-winning solo artist specialising in traditional Gaelic and Scots folk music. She has performed live extensively, including at the Opera North Twilight Season in Leeds in 2015 and the Box Full of Treasures festival in Italy in 2013, which was also the year she released her debut album ‘Journey’ to critical acclaim. In more recent years, she has continued to make music despite near-death experiences (plural), multiple sensory loss, chronic pain and the inevitable highs and lows that go along with trying to make a success of a creative life in troubled times. Happily, she is now well on the way to completing her second studio album ‘Where the Wind Blows’ and is still an in-demand name on the live folk circuit. Some of this new material has already enjoyed radio play on the BBC Introducing in Oxford show. Elena cites Charlbury’s incredible community as her foremost reason for settling here. The varied connections and support she has received – both in and out of music – have proven invaluable to her and she looks forward to making a few more after her talk and performance!

Anna Gillespie will read from her new collection of poems and show the illustrations that accompany them.

Anna’s book, called ‘Breathe’, contains poetry and visual art made during the lockdown. Anna is a glass artist, based in Charlbury. She works in stained and fused glass. As part of her practice she draws, paints and prints. Anna says “Poetry is a new form of expression for me and I’m excited that it has opened up at this point of my life. Creating visual art to complement the poems has been an absorbing challenge for Lockdown 1 and the poetry writing continues in Lockdown 2, alongside working on my stained glass commissions for houses in Charlbury.”