Mercy Ships, a charity which provides free healthcare onboard the world’s largest civilian hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, is hosting its first Scottish Christmas Carol Service at St Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh on Monday December 14. The charity brings hope and healing to many of those living in the world’s poorest countries and the vessel is currently in Madagascar, aiming to provide approximately 1,700 surgeries for patients onboard.

The Christmas Carol Service will remember those who are no longer with us. By filling out an online donation form, Mercy Ships invites attendees to send the names of loved ones to be printed in the Order of Service so that they can be remembered through prayer and song on the evening.

mercyships.org.uk

Glenfarg Folk Club takes up temporary residence at the Green Hotel in Kinross over November and December due to the closure of its regular home, the Glenfarg Hotel. The club will avail itself of the Backstage at Green Hotel venue for multi-instrumental quartet Haggerdash (November 16), popular entertainer Alastair McDonald (November 23), singer-songwriter Jim Malcolm, pictured, (December 7) and madcap songsmith Roberto Cassani & Tickety2 (December 14). There will also be informal singarounds on November 30 and December 21. The club is due to reopen after the festive season on January 18.

glenfargfolkclub.com

Internationally regarded harmonica player Donald Black plays a home gig at Benderloch Victory Hall, near Oban on Friday, November 20. Earlier this year, Black guested on Nashville legend Charlie McCoy’s latest album, Celtic Dreams, playing the late Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland’s Lonesome Eyes in a duet with McCoy, whose CV includes recordings with Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Nancy Sinatra and a host of others. The Benderloch gig starts at 8pm. Black also plays at the West End Hotel, Fort William on Saturday, November 21.

donald-black.com

Saturday November 21 sees the next Live in HD relay from New York's Metropolitan Opera House to cinemas around the world. This weekend's matinee transmission, starting at 5.30 GMT in the UK is a new production of Berg's Lulu, directed by William Kentridge, whose famous collaboration with Handspring Puppets, Ubu and the Truth Commission, played the Edinburgh International Festival in 2014.

The South African's femme fatale is Marlis Petersen, who first collaborated with the director in 2009 on his Magic Flute in Aix-en-Provence. The opera is conducted by James Levine, who also conducted the Met premiere of Lulu in 1977.

metopera.org