Tacoma’s Second City Chamber Series is a hidden gem – and even more so the two annual concerts in the Lakewold Gardens’ Wagner House. Where else around here can you hear fine chamber music so close you can see the performers breathe, and spend the intermission enjoying beautiful gardens or a glass of wine under an arbored terrace? Last week’s SCCS concert was a perfect fusion of the elegance of baroque music in a historic house and the coziness that comes from an audience of 50, most of whom know each other and the performers.

Called “Monticello,” the program was …

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Northwest Sinfonietta goes gypsy

Playing on past successes, the Northwest Sinfonietta is revisiting Gypsy jazz in a fusion concert this weekend that features a new Django Reinhardt-inspired composition by director Christophe Chagnard for three jazz guitars and orchestra. Also on the program is Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with Mark Salman and Mahler’s 5^th symphony Adagietto. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 (Seattle) and 13 (Tacoma), 2 p.m. Nov. 14 (Puyallup.) $19-$49. Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle, 866-833-4747. Rialto Theater, 310 S. 9^th St., Tacoma, 253-591-5894. Pioneer Park Pavilion, 330 S. Meridian, Puyallup, 800-838-3006. www.nwsinfonietta.org

Second City Chamber Series goes to …

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Second City Chamber Series goes to Israel

Second City opens its new main season with a program of music with Jewish roots: Bloch, Schiff, Lavry and Schulhoff, played by piano trio and Eb clarinet. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8. $32/$29 seniors/$10 students/free for under-18. Great Hall, Annie Wright School, 827 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-TUNE, www.scchamberseries.org

Tacoma Film Festival opens

This local festival features dozens of short and long independent films, many made in the Northwest, and ranging from documentary to feature to animation. Oct. 7-14, see website or brochure for schedule. $8.50/$6.50 matinee. Various Tacoma venues including the Grand Cinema …

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“Rosenkrantz” and “Hamlet” at Lakewood

Lakewood Playhouse present two Tom Stoppard comedies: the wacky “Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” a behind-the-scenes version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” told by the hero’s college buddies, and “The Fifteen-Minute Hamlet,” which is exactly (and hilariously) what it sounds like. 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Aug. 15. $23/$20/$17/$15. 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd, Lakewood. 253-588-0042, www.lakewoodplayhouse.org

Tacoma Art Museum festival

TAM’s Best of the Northwest Free Community Festival showcases not only local art inside (the Neddys, painter Victoria Adams, plus a local version of “Tacoma’s Got Talent”) but outside also, as the CLAW cartoon …

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Click Flick: “Free Willy”

The Click Family Flick at the Grand this month is the heart-wrenching orca tale, “Free Willy.” June 19, doors open 10 a.m., screening 10:30 a.m. Free, first 100 people only. The Grand Cinema, 608 S. Fawcett Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-6062, www.grandcinema.com

Persian poetry on the summer solstice

Celebrate the longest day of the year (if not the warmest) with an evening of Persian poetry, food, wine and music. A fundraiser for United for Peace Pierce County, the evening is set in a North-end rose garden, and features Rick Steves’ cinematographer Abdi Sami. 6-9 p.m. June 21. $30. …

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Second City plays Soirée chamber music

Local musicians mix up Haydn chamber trios with Claude Bolling’s jazz trios for violin and flute combinations in this last season concert for Second City Chamber Series. 7:30 p.m. May 14. $35/$30/$15. Great Hall, Annie Wright School, 827 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-TUNE, www.scchamberseries.org

Father-son poetry duo read at King’s

The Puget Sound Poetry Connection presents father-son poet team Willis and Tony Barnstone at a reading for its Distinguished Writers Series. Both highly published, the Barnstones are also academics: Willis at Indiana University and Tony at Whittier College. 7 p.m. May 14. Free. …

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Second Series offers “Trout” songs and quintet

Hear Schubert’s famous “Trout” quintet, along with the song that inspired it and other 19^th-century lieder and chamber music from the Second City Chamber Series. 7:30 p.m. Jan. 15. $35/$30/$15. Great Hall at Annie Wright School, 827 N. Tacoma Ave., Tacoma. 253-572-TUNE, www.scchamberseries.org

Sinfonietta’s “The Golden Trumpet” at TAM

The Northwest Sinfonietta’s principal trumpet Judson Scott plays solos by Enesco, Hutchinson, Debussy and more with pianist Cristina Valdes in the second concert in the “Music Off the Walls” chamber series at Tacoma Art Museum. 7:30 p.m. Jan. 16. $28/$23. TAM, 1701 Pacific Ave., …

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“Mozart Meets Beethoven” at the Sinfonietta

The Northwest Sinfonietta kicks off a two-concert festival of the two iconic composers, with conductor Christophe Chagnard sharing the baton with Tacoma Symphony’s Harvey Felder. 7:30p.m. Nov. 14. $19-$49. Rialto Theater, 310 S. 9^th St., Tacoma. 253-383-5344, www.nwsinfonietta.com

King’s Books Poetry Marathon

Like poetry? You’d better, since there’ll be 13 poets of renown reading their work throughout Saturday at King’s Books, interspersed with three open mic sessions for the rest of us. It’s all courtesy of the Puget Sound Poetry Connection. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Nov. 14. Free. King’s Books, 218 St. Helens Ave., …

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