Jazz, brass and Babylon highlight weekend

Updated: January 6, 2017 Published: January 6, 2017

Chugach Brass Members Christopher Sweeney (left), Cheryl Pierce and Linn Weeda. (Courtesy Anchorage Festival of Music)

Brass, American-style

The Chugach Brass, with pianist Janet Carr-Campbell, will take center stage for the Anchorage Festival of Music's next concert at 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 8, in the UAA Recital Hall. Trumpeters Linn Weeda and Jason Edwards, trombonists Christopher Sweeney and Jennifer Edwards, horn player Cheryl Pierce and tuba dude Mike Martinson will perform Ingolf Dahl's "Music for Brass Instruments." Music by Lou Harrison and band genius Vaclav Nelhybel will also be on the program, along with the world premiere of a work by Louis Stewart of Boston and works by Emma Lou Diemer and Eric Ewazen, the last three of whom have an Alaska connection. Tickets are available at centertix.net.

Jazz, Spenard-style

The Alaska Jazz Workshop Ensembles are hosting weekly community jazz jams at Organic Oasis from 4 to 6 p.m. Saturdays. Anyone with a grasp of classic jazz, blues, Latin or funk, from middle school through geezerdom, is invited to show up with their instrument and join the jammin'. A keyboard will be available along with a guitar and bass amp and PA system for vocalists. The event is free for jammers with a $5 donation suggested for those who just show up to listen. More information is available at akjazzworkshop.org.

Placido Domingo in the title role of “Nabucco.” (Photo by Marty Sohl/Metropolitan Opera)

Opera, Babylonian-style

"The Met: Live in HD" series kicks off 2017 with an in-theater broadcast of Giuseppe Verdi's "Nabucco," a made-for-Hollywood reworking of the Old Testament tales of a mad monarch, a power-hungry warrior queen and hard-pressed Hebrews in exile. Placido Domingo has the title role of the character known in English as Nebuchadnezzar, leading an all-star crew on a set worthy of Cecil B. DeMille. James Levine conducts. Showtime is 12:55 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 7, at Century 16.

Mike Dunham

Mike Dunham was a longtime ADN reporter, mainly writing about culture, arts and Alaska history. He worked in radio for 20 years before switching to print. He retired from the ADN in 2017.