SpokFrevo Orquestra.
Credit: World Music/CRASHarts
Ready to try a little something beyond the usual rock shows? Get a little more creative with your musical tastes with these options.
Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival
Sept. 27
Corner of Mass. Ave. and Columbus Ave.
South Boston
Free, 617-747-2568
www.beantownjazz.org
Boston will be heaven for jazz-heads for a single day in September. A highly diverse array of jazz and jazz-inflected musicians are scheduled to play, including Federator N°1, Marco Pignataro, Marcus Santos, Screaming Headless Torsos, Ambrose Akinmusire, Aubrey Logan, Miguel Zenon and Snarky Puppy, Sheila E. (yes, Prince’s Sheila E.), Yoron Israel, Kneebody and several more.
World of Klezmer
Sept. 27
Tsai Performance Center
685 Comm. Ave., Boston
$10-$30, 617-354-6910
www.bmv.org
Boston Musica Viva presents a concert celebrating the European Jewish folk music style that, transported to America in the late 19th century, would become an important influence on jazz, and vice versa. In fact, klezmer aficionados make a distinction between pre and post-jazz klezmer. This concert, featuring contemporary works, shows it to be an ever-evolving global tradition.
‘From the Top Live’
Oct. 5
Jordan Hall
30 Gainsborough St., Boston
$20-$43, 617-437-0707
www.fromthetop.org
Since the 1990s, public radio’s “From the Top”, hosted by pianist Christopher O’Reilly, has featured some of the world’s best young classical musicians, between the ages of 8 and 18. Sometimes when listening, it’s hard to believe the person playing is really that young, which ought to make it all the more jaw-dropping to see live.
Baroque Fireworks!
Oct. 10 and 12
Symphony Hall
301 Mass. Ave., Boston
$22-$88, 617-266-3605
www.handelandhaydn.org
This special concert celebrates the 200th anniversary of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society — only the U.S. Marine Band has it beat as the oldest musical organization in America. Fun fact: In 1824 the Society commissioned Beethoven to write an oratorio, but sadly, he never finished it. The 200th anniversary program includes works by Handel, Bach, Stevenson and Vivaldi.
Regina Carter’s Southern Comfort
Oct. 17
Sanders Theater
45 Quincy St., Cambridge
$30-$60, 617-482-6661
www.celebrityseries.org
On her most recent project, “Southern Comfort”, MacArthur Fellow and violin virtuosa Regina Carter explores a wide variety of Southern musical strains, attempting to connect with her family history. From blues to funk to ballads that sound like they came off Ken Burns’ “Civil War” soundtrack, she proves a deft and evocative interpreter, assimilating a myriad of voices into her own idiom.
SpokFrevo Orquestra
Oct. 19, 8 p.m.
Berklee Performance Center
136 Mass. Ave., Boston
$28-$37, 617-876-4275
www.worldmusic.org
This Brazilian ensemble has a brassy big band sound rooted in the classic carvaval style known as frevo. We’re not sure which of the bandleader’s names is cooler: his real name, Inaldo Cavalcante de Albuquerque, or his nickname, Maestro Spok. Under his direction, they’re remarkably tight and fast group—this is music that can really get your heart going.
‘The Magic Flute’
Oct. 21 through Oct. 26
Cutler Majestic Theater
219 Tremont St., Boston
$25-$125, 617-824-8400
www.artsemerson.org
The South African group Isango Ensemble presents their radical re-imagining of Mozart’s popular opera “The Magic Flute” through a uniquely South African lens. Everything from the instrumentation to the costumes is informed by narrative and musical traditions from the Cape Town area—it’s a cultural transposition that seems difficult to pull off, but Isango makes it look easy and fun.
J.S. Bach and Brahms
Oct. 23 through 25
Symphony Hall
301 Mass. Ave., Boston
$30-$104, 888-266-1200
www.bso.org
The Boston Symphony presents two works for voice and orchestra: Bach’s unnamed cantata for bass soloist and orchestra, from 1727, featuring Bryn Terfel, and Brahms’ “German Requiem”, featuring soprano Rosemary Joshua. The requiem, Brahms’ longest piece, is a deeply personal work said to be inspired by Robert Schumann’s 1854 suicide attempt and the death of Brahms’ own mother.
‘American Visions’
Nov. 9
Jordan Hall
$20-$67, 617-236-4011
www.coroallegro.org
Coro Allegro presents a program connecting past and present in American composition, with three settings of folk melodies by the great Aaron Copeland, followed by three works by living composers: Andrew Bonacci, Nicholas Anthony Ascioti and Alexander deVaron. Bonacci interprets William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence”, while deVaron provides a setting for a “Proto-leaf”, a poem by Walt Whitman.
