Free UPS symphony/choir concert

University of Puget Sound’s symphony orchestra and three choirs will give a free concert tonight, featuring Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto no. 1 and Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with student soloists, and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Duane Hulbert on piano and three choirs. 7:30 p.m. tonight. Free. Schneebeck Concert Hall, UPS, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma. 253-879-3419, www.pugetsound.edu

Regency Quartet at Agnus Dei Lutheran

At Agnus Dei Lutheran church in Gig Harbor, the third concert in this year’s series features the Regency String Quartet. The resident faculty quartet at Pacific Lutheran University, the quartet will play music …

Read more »

The Asia Pacific Cultural Center will be presenting a free screening of the film “Vincent Who?” at the University of Washington, Tacoma at 6 p.m. May 5. The new documentary looks at the 1982 hate crime of Vincent Chin in Detroit from the perspective of both key players and recent Asian-American activists.

The murder of Vincent Chin by two white autoworkers who claimed he and other Asian workers were taking their jobs – and the decision of the judge to sentence the murderers to a mere $3,000 fine and three years probation – was an event that …

Read more »

The St. John’s Concert Series presents the Pacific Lutheran University Jazz Ensemble this Sunday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Olympia.

The band will play big band repertoire from Duke Ellington to Maria Schneider under the direction of Bob Miller, with a reception afterwards. Free childcare will be provided.

PLU Jazz Ensemble will play at 3 p.m. May 1 at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 114 20th Ave. SE, Olympia. Entry by donation. 360-352-8527, www.stjohnsoly.org

Tacoma band Little Bill and the Blue Notes are one of the recipients of the Washington Blues Society’s annual Best of the Blues awards, announced recently at the Triple Door in Seattle.

The awards ceremony, on April 17, included 30 categories from individual performers to bands and venues. Little Bill and the Blue Notes won Best Traditional Blues Act; the other local winner was the Blues Vespers at Immanuel Presbyterian Church for Best Non-Festival Blues Event. For a complete listing, visit www.wablues.org

The society is also holding its first-ever statewide competition to send a Washington state band and solo/duo act …

Read more »

Mineral art space in Tacoma’s Stadium District has closed, and a new gallery will be opening in its place on May 19: Flow. Run by sumi-e and calligraphy artist Andrea Erickson, the gallery and studio will open with the show “Commencement,” featuring work by Erickson, Fumiko Kimura, Selinda Sheridan and Kathryn Whitacre, in a mixture of watercolor, mixed media, jewelry and three-dimensional art.

Andrea Erickson is a local sumi-e and calligraphy artist who has shown at  the Bellevue Art Museum , the Western Washington State Fair, the Handforth Gallery at the Tacoma Public Library, the Kirsten, Sandpiper and White Dove Galleries, …

Read more »

It may not seem like spring this week, with way more weeds than sunshine, but Sunday is May Day: the first of May, traditionally a holiday in Europe to welcome in warmer weather. (One can always hope, right?) From medieval times, villagers would take the day off to sing, gather flowers and dance around a maypole, making complex patterns with ribbons. You too can celebrate May Day, either with the Puget Sound Revels or Tacoma Art Museum.

If you’d like a taste of that tradition, the Puget Sound Revels folks will be welcoming in May Day as they …

Read more »

A few weeks ago I wrote a profile of a Seattle-based flamenco dancer, Savannah Fuentes, who has been bringing herself and international flamenco musicians to the New Frontier Lounge, of all places, as well as up and down Puget Sound cities. I wrote that Tacoma isn’t known for flamenco, and that’s true, but if I implied that it doesn’t have any, then I certainly didn’t mean to. Marisela Fleites has been teaching flamenco with Metro Parks and Washington Contemporary Ballet, as well as performing with her company Tacoma Flamenca, for a number of years now, and the company …

Read more »

Gold From Straw’s premiere of “Sloth”

Gold From Straw theater company presents the world premiere of “Sloth,” a dramatic comedy by Bruce Post about a reclusive widowed firefighter who’s dragged out of inaction by neighborhood drama. Opens 8 p.m. tonight, then 8 p.m. Apr. 23, 28,29,30, May 6, 7, 13, 14; 2 p.m. Apr. 23, 30, May 7, 14. $26/$23/Pay-What-You-Can Apr. 28. Theatre on the Square, 915 Broadway, Tacoma. 253-591-5894, www.broadwaycenter.org, www.goldfromstraw.org

Hitchcock’s “The 39 Steps” live in Auburn

The nationally touring, Tony-winning live theater version of Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller “The 39 Steps” comes to Auburn this …

Read more »