What unites Bill Bailey, critic Mark Kermode and Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory? That's right, in their leisure time they all love to crack out the theremin. As part of a 4-day Theremin Academy this weekend in Oxford, you can too! Have a guided try-out with the experts on Saturday, and you'll find it's not as easy as it looks - the player's hands move through magnetic fields, rather than a familiar surface like a keyboard or violin neck. But you can produce some great sounds (or failing that, just pretend you're starring in The Day the Earth Stood Still). The hands-on (or hands-off?) seminar is immediately followed by a concert given by renowned players Lydia Kavina, who is Oxford-based and attracts thereminists from across the world, and Thierry Frankel, who is a performer, conductor and 'electronic luthier'. Which means he maintains, modifies and advisedly tinkers with these Ur-synthesisers.

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