“Sonatas!,” a faculty recital of sonatas for viola and piano, performed by Kathryn Lockwood and Estela Olevsky, will be presented Monday at 7:30 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall.
On the program: Opus 147 by Shotaskovich, and Opus 120, No. 1 by Brahms.
Tickets cost $10; $30 for UMass students; $5 for other students, children and seniors.
Pipa Virtuoso Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet will present “A Night in Ancient and New China” Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in a show that explores both contemporary and traditional music of China. The concert will connect Chinese folk songs and movie scores with Mozart’s String Quartet in D Major.
In 2013, Wu Man was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year. She was nominated for a Grammy Award and has created a career as a soloist, educator and composer on the pipa, a lutelike instrument.
The Shanghai Quartet is one of the world’s foremost chamber ensembles. Formed in 1983 at the Shanghai Conservatory, it has worked with distinguished artists worldwide and regularly tours the major music centers in Europe, North America and Asia. The musicians are Weigang Li, violin; Honggang Li, viola; Yi-Wen Jiang, violin; and Nicholas Tzavaras, cello.
Tickets cost from $10 to $40. To reserve, call the Fine Arts Center box office at 545-2511 or visit fineartscenter.com.
There will be a post-performance Q & A.
On Monday at 7 p.m., there will be a free screening and talk by Wu Man about her film, “Discovering a Musical Heartland: Wu Man in China,” in the Fine Arts Center Lobby. In the film, Wu Man travels to little-explored regions of China to uncover ancient musical traditions that have rarely been documented.
The All-University Orchestra from UMass will perform Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Grace Church, 14 Boltwood Avenue in Amherst. The program will include Albinoni’s “Adagio in G Minor” and Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B Minor “Unfinished” D.759.
The All-University Orchestra is made up of non-music majors and provides an opportunity for players without prior orchestral experience to belong to an orchestra and to acquire skills for larger ensembles.
The group started with only strings, but now includes winds, brass and percussion.
The concert is free and open to the public.
The Bobby Bradford/Hafez Modirzadeh Quartet will perform Thursday at 8 p.m. in Bezanson Recital Hall at UMass. The performance is part of the “Magic Triangle Jazz Series.”
Cornet player Bradford’s career has zigzagged in a way that has eluded the spotlight. At 81, he is revered in progressive music circles, yet is not widely known.
“Those of us who have been blessed to know Bobby Bradford … can attest to a probing, powerful intellect that assimilates the history of jazz in a highly unique manner,” writes master flutist James Newton. “His understanding of the history, coupled with his embracing of jazz’s mandate for innovation, reveals itself in his teaching, playing and composing.”
For more than two decades, composer/saxophonist/theorist Modirzadeh has developed his pioneering chromodal concept, a cross-cultural musical approach developed from his own American jazz and Iranian dastgah (traditional Persian music) heritages.
Tickets cost $12; $7 for students. To reserve, call the Fine Arts Center box office at 545-2511.
“The Weeping Tree,” a musical cantata for Good Friday, will be presented Friday at 7 p.m. in Wesley United Methodist Church, 98 North Maple St. in Hadley.
“The cantata, by Joseph Martin, portrays the cross using traditional hymns, newly composed music, narration and sacred symbols.
The four soloists will be Adwoa Ampiah-Bonney, Connie Cappelli, and Ted and Kathy Blaisdell.
Open to the public.
“Through the Woods” will be shown Saturday at 10 a.m. at Amherst Cinema, 28 Amity St., Amherst. It is part of the theater’s “Family Fun” series.
The film follows the Okee Dokee Brothers (childhood friends Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing from Denver, Colorado) as they take a journey along the Appalachian Trail that is full of camping, old-time mountain music and miles of hiking. It includes interviews, music videos and other shenanigans. The pair has won three Parents’ Choice Awards and garnered praise from NPR’s “All Things Considered” and USA Today. The film lasts for 50 minutes, and is not rated.
Musicians Courtney Parker and Evan Curran will perform storytelling and songs about their fictional traveling dogs Shiprock & Anchordog before the screening.
Tickets cost $5.
“Drawn Together Program 2,” animated shorts by Valley artists will be shown Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the cinema. The films have been selected by Oscar-winning animator and Hampshire College professor, Chris Perry.
Perry was a technical director at Pixar Animation Studios, and worked on such films at “A Bug’s Life,” Finding Nemo” and “Toy Story 2.”
The evening explores dramatic narratives and highlights emerging technology and techniques. Participating artists are Gabriel Harel, Tomasz Baginski, Don Hertzfeldt, Santiago “Bou”Grasso, David O’Reilly, Roman Kaelin, Falko Paeper and Florian Wittman.
Regular admission.
To reserve tickets for either film, visit amherstcinema.org.