April 28th, 2026 — Finola Merivale’s (CRF 2024) album Abhaile for saxophone, electronics and improvisation with her collaborator Catherine Sikora is coming out on May 1st. Released by Fort Evil Fruit on cassette and available on Bandcamp. A co-release, it will also be released on CD with Relative Pitch later this summer.
Portrait Concert
A portrait concert celebrating the launch will take place on April 30th in Paris, France at the Institute for Ideas and Imagination, where the composer has been a Fellow this past academic year—on April 30th. The evening includes a pre-concert talk with pianist Magdalena Stern-Baczewska, the world premiere of Ceasing Sands for multi-tracked violin (performed by Maya Bennardo), and a full performance by Catherine Sikora of the album. A music video by Nina Berman of one of the album works, Closing Doors, will be presented as part of a multi-media performance.
The album music, including the Closing Doors video, will travel to National Concert Hall in Dublin, Ireland on May 5th.
Lodestar Podcast
In other news, Finola launched a podcast with her sister, called Lodestar with Tamzin and Finola, about relationships with creativity and the highs and lows of the creative process. They interview writers, artists, musicians, film-makers and more. Each guest gives them a “creativity challenge,” and then, the episodes between our interviews, Tamzin and Finola discuss what inspired them about the discussion and how their experience with the challenge went.
Guests include pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown, Cannes Grand Prix winner and Golden Globe nominated film-maker Payal Kapadia, exiled Belarussian journalist Hanna Liubakova, and this week’s episode is 2026 Grammy-nominated composer, Emma O’Halloran.