For a singer so often sampled in electronic dance music, it’s a high-end twist to replace synth, claps and bass drum with the woodwinds, strings and brass of an orchestra.

Hot on the heels of her newest release, “Higher Than Heaven”, Ellie Golding performed a one night only gig at London’s Royal Albert Hall alongside the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Derrick Skye, and the London Voices Choir.

A little more than a year after the death of acclaimed jazz trumpeter and composer Abram Wilson, his former manager and widow Jennie Cashman Wilson has teamed up with EFG London Jazz Festival producers Serious to stage the only London tribute concert in memory of her husband.

For lovers of vocal jazz, Georgia Mancio's ReVoice! Festival has become an unmissable part of London's jazz calendar. Now in its fourth year, ReVoice! has previously played host to artists such as Gregory Porter (his first UK booking), Tuck & Patti, Raúl Midón and the Becca Stevens Band. Running over 10 nights from 10-19 October, this year's edition is the longest yet, with all concerts hosted at Soho's Pizza Express Jazz Club.

Tickets are now on sale for the Brighton Comedy Festival (4-20 October), which takes place in several venues in the South Coast town.

Even visitors from distant galaxies will be aware that, when it comes to the arts, state munificence is not what it was. Cuts are biting deep into an industry which is not always able to provide facts and figures in support of its importance to national wellbeing. When public money runs dry, the only other source is private wealth. But even sponsors and benefactors are feeling the pinch these days, so a new initiative has been announced to address the problem by going directly to consumers of the arts.

Over the last few years the Poles have been pumping money into the arts, partly as a way of branding the country (it works according to their research – many of us are now as likely to think of jazz musicians as plumbers when we think of the country).There was Polska! Year in 2009/10 – with hundreds of artistic events, setting up international orchestras and, on now, the increasingly adventurous and influential Kinoteka, the Polish Film Festival which runs until the end of the week.

The sound of a heartbeat. A metronomic ticking. Two men confessing that they’re mad (even if they’re not mad) as a cash register chings. Another man’s manic laughter. A harsh industrial grinding noise. Screams. And then some rock music, Olympian in its distance and instantly cinematic, but with a hint of the blues…

The sixth Altitude Festival takes place on March 18-22. The festival of Alpine comedy started in 2008 when Marcus Brigstocke decided to combine his day job with the family's snowboarding holiday and invited a few of his comedy mates to join him in performing in Méribel in France while skiing or snowboarding (some of them for the first time, which made for good comedy in itself). Latterly Andrew Maxwell has taken over producing the event, which has now moved across the Alps to Mayrhofen in Austria.

Film fans will not need reminding that next weekend knees all over Tinseltown start quivering at the prospect of the Academy Awards. To get you in shape for the big night, theartsdesk is running a week's worth of Oscar-related features starting on Monday.

“I wonder what the poor people are doing tonight.” This weekend is the 30^th anniversary of one of the best-loved films in British cinematic history. There are louder movies than Local Hero, comedies with bigger laughs and more telegraphic intentions. But one of the reasons Bill Forsyth’s pocket masterpiece has earned a place in so many hearts is the gentleness of wry wit, the modesty of its wisdom, and underpinning it all a profound humanity.