5 things to do for a music-filled weekend

Music is a wonderful source of connection for all ages. Organization Revels works to bring people together through performance, and it is hosting its annual Spring Sing on Sunday, connecting audiences and performers through song and dance. Want more opportunities to listen and engage? You’re in luck! The weekend is full of events, including a concert of emerging singer-songwriters, the Arlington Jazz Festival and more.

The Salt Lick Incubator is a nonprofit that works with and supports up-and-coming artists. The Umbrella Arts Center will host a concert featuring three Salt Lick Incubator artists: Ellie Williams, Sofia Lafuente and Farayi Malek. Williams is based in Los Angeles, and she released her debut EP “Warning Signs” in 2023. She explores her queer identity through her music inspired by Fleet Foxes and Maggie Rogers. Lafuente is a Spanish American artist from Miami and Madrid and she writes introspective music, inspired by early Shakira and Berklee dropout Lizzy McAlpine. Malek sonically combines folk, hymns, blues and jazz. She is a Grammy-nominated vocalist with Danilo Perez’s Global Messengers and will release her debut EP “Edge of the Earth” on Thursday, March 27. Tickets range from $20 to $75.

Musician and composer Caroline Shaw and dancer-choreographer Vanessa Goodman drew inspiration from the symbolism of soil for “Graveyards and Gardens.” The piece explores soil as the cyclical and interconnected nature of life. Shaw won the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2013 and secured five Grammy wins over her career. Goodman is the artistic director of Action at a Distance Dance Society in Vancouver, and she won the 2013 Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award. There will be a Q&A with Shaw and Goodman moderated by Sharan Leventhal, Boston Conservatory at Berklee Strings faculty member, after the 2 p.m. show on Saturday. Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston, the performances will take place at Arrow Street Arts, and tickets range from $44 to $84. [Explore our spring dance guide for more events.]

Revels’ “Spring Sing” celebrates the vernal equinox and gets performers and audience members involved in singing and dancing. Children will perform a “Pace Egg” play inspired by a 19th-century Northern England tradition. The plays involve stage combat, and performers often receive decorated eggs from villagers. Teen rapper sword dancers from Great Meadows Morris and Sword, and Irish dance students from O’Riley Irish Dance will perform. At the end of the show, audience members will be invited to dance. The event will take place at The Center for the Arts at the Armory in Somerville. Tickets are pay-what-you-can starting at $10.

The 14th annual Arlington Jazz Festival offers musical experiences (many free to attend) for Greater Boston jazz connoisseurs. K&R Quartet will kick off the fest with a performance at Morningside Annex at 108 Summer St. on Sunday. Leading the quartet is pianist and composer Lefteris Kordis, who plays Mediterranean jazz and teaches at Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute and Ionian University in Corfu. Tickets for this performance are $23, and advance tickets are recommended. That Trio! will play the same venue on Wednesday, April 2. Comprised of drummer Connor Sturge, pianist Liz Sinn and bassist Jack Davies, the group formed at Berklee and brings pop, hip-hop and avant-garde influences to jazz. This concert is free. To see the full festival lineup, check out the schedule here.

Those looking for an intimate, participatory musical experience can head to “Night Side Songs” at the Cambridge Masonic Temple March 27-April 6 and Roxbury’s Hibernian Hall April 8-20. Organized by American Repertory Theater, the event “celebrates the resilience of the human spirit” with music by Richard Rodgers Award recipients (and siblings) Daniel Lazour and Patrick Lazour. The music-theater performance explores illness through the stories of doctors, patients, researchers and caregivers. Tickets start at $50.

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