Percussion

For the mad month of May, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has embarked on a wildly ambitious, slightly mad operatic mission. It includes a Walt Disney Concert Hall staging of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" next week and the world premiere of John Adams' large-scale opera-oratorio, "The Gospel According to the Other Mary," at month's end. The adventure began Tuesday night with a rare and important performance of Luciano Berio's elaborately operatic study...

[This story has been updated.] This year's Grammy Award nominees in the classical music categories feature a typically diverse mix of recordings, ranging from gargantuan undertakings such as the Metropolitan Opera's production of Wagner's "Ring" cycle operas, to more intimate albums like the newest release from the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet. Among the more notable nominees are soprano Renee Fleming, the group eighth blackbird and composer Steven Stucky. The L.A. Percussion Quartet received two nods for its album "Rupa-Khandha," in the categories of chamber-music performance and surround-sound album.

The thought of an extended composition devoted to sensory deprivation must give pause to the most intrepid musical adventurer. But Sunday evening at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Theodore Peterson's "Dr. John Wants to Talk to Dolphins" proved an irresistibly sensuous, surprisingly upbeat experience. Heard on a program presented by the Independent Composers Assn., "Dr. John" deals not with isolation, but with the human results.

After nearly 10 years, two U.S. presidential elections and a near-complete global financial collapse, the Canadian collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a new album last week. Why is that contextualizing necessary? The band's exquisite brand of experimental rock, which combines noise, guitars, strings and martial percussion, constitutes the most politically charged, instrumental music of the last 25 years. It's a curious paradox, but not without precedent. Jazz has a rich history as music of social consciousness, and Godspeed cited Ornette Coleman in a recent email exchange with the Guardian , which amounted to the band's most direct statement about its self-described joyous noise.

A misty mood of old Japan filled the Walt Disney Concert Hall as dim blue light shone on several ornately designed taiko drums, including an elephant-sized one on a lamp-strewn platform. Nine members of the Kodo percussion troupe, hailing from Sado Island in the Sea of Japan, slowly took the stage and, in perfect synchronization, began to play in a measured way, gradually building a percussive edifice of enormous power. The renowned troupe brought its newest generation to the L.A. stop of its One Earth Tour, with a Sunday evening show that benefited greatly from the sheer youthfulness of the company's players, who gave the tradition-based compositions an exuberantly contemporary feel, even modernizing the rhythms with hints of swinging jazz and rock.

At 63, armorer R. Vern Crofoot likes 1870s percussion cap guns well enough, but it is Revolutionary-era flintlocks and their earlier predecessors, the matchlocks, that are his specialty and passion. "I like the artistry of the early weapons -- the balance, the beauty of them," he says. "They were handmade pieces of art. And the flintlock was the zenith of the front-loading guns. After the flintlock, most of the percussion guns were much more of a tool than a work of art." Raised in Orlando, Fla., Crofoot hunted with muzzle-loading percussion guns beginning at around age 10. "I've killed wild hogs right where Disney's property is, probably where Fantasyland and the castle [are]

Bamboozle Left: An article in Monday's Calendar about the music festival Bamboozle Left incorrectly said the L.A. band Funeral Party -- whose name erroneously was not capitalized -- featured a Tia Puente percussion jam sound. It features a Tito Puente percussion jam sound, referring to the famed jazz musician.

With Day-Glo shirts beneath paint-splattered suits, the Nylons are a Toronto quartet that apparently likes to think it is bringing a new twist to the a cappella vocal tradition that dates back in rock to the Orlons and Chiffons. The group's even got its own, catchy name for its style: "rockapella."

Two contrasting works made odd program-mates as weekend festival activities drew to a close at CalArts last Sunday night. Though Stephen Mosko's "Indigenous Music II" (heard in its premiere) and William Albright's "A Full Moon in March" (1979) only occasionally raised one's pulse rate, a decidedly partisan crowd whooped it up for the home team as two faculty-student ensembles brought conviction and virtuosity to each piece.

Does curly-haired Andreas Vollenweider look like an '80s version of Harpo Marx? Does his music ever use more than four chords? Did this listener's mind wander after the first five minutes of Vollenweider's concert Monday night at the Greek Theatre? The answers, in order, are yes, rarely and frequently. Vollenweider does have an adorably cherubic look as he encircles his amplified harp. But unlike Harpo, he talks . . . and talks and talks.

Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of John Cage's birth, and the world celebrated in ways large and small. The New Yorker magazine declared the 20th century "the John Cage century. " Washington, D.C., got into full Cagean swing with an eight-day festival. New York took notice. So did Berlin, Vienna, Paris and London. Los Angeles was somewhat less stirred about its homeboy who revolutionized the way we hear music and approach art. Wednesday, the music department of Pomona College, Cage's alma mater, cut a cake.

For the mad month of May, the Los Angeles Philharmonic has embarked on a wildly ambitious, slightly mad operatic mission. It includes a Walt Disney Concert Hall staging of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" next week and the world premiere of John Adams' large-scale opera-oratorio, "The Gospel According to the Other Mary," at month's end. The adventure began Tuesday night with a rare and important performance of Luciano Berio's elaborately operatic study...

The score for Oscar Bettison's chamber concerto "Livre des Sauvages" ("The Book of Savages") should come with an IKEA-like warning: Some Assembly Required. The half-hour work, which will be given its premiere Tuesday at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella new music series, employs a toy piano, hotel desk bells, melodicas (with foot pumps), tuned cowbells, tuning forks, conch shells and a "wrenchophone. " The concert, to be conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky, also will feature works by Stockhausen and Cage.

Jennifer Higdon, who won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2010, says her desire to write classical music as hospitable as a Southern dinner stems from a childhood trauma: seeing performance art in the 1960s. She blames her father, a "hippie before the hippie movement," who took her and her younger brother to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta when they were kids. One "art happening," Higdon says, featured an artist, dressed in black, covered with rubber cement, strapped to a black canvas.

Indian percussionist Zakir Hussain is a master of his homeland's classical music and perhaps the genre's most recognizable artist. But he's also somewhat of an evangelist when it comes to exposing new audiences to the ancient musical craft. The enthusiastic tabla player has reached a new demographic as a frequent collaborator with stars such as jazz fusionist John McLaughlin (they led the groundbreaking Indian-jazz group Shakti) and George Harrison, not to mention his long-term series of explorations with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart.

Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero came to this beach resort seeking a fresh start after realizing that their Mexico City metal band was a dismal failure. More than a decade later, Ixtapa is again a haven for them - this time from the rigors of soaring success. The couple, known as Rodrigo y Gabriela, have lived a story that could have sprouted in Hollywood: The pair swap electric guitars for acoustic ones, move to Ireland to play street corners and develop a distinctive style.

The score for Oscar Bettison's chamber concerto "Livre des Sauvages" ("The Book of Savages") should come with an IKEA-like warning: Some Assembly Required. The half-hour work, which will be given its premiere Tuesday at Walt Disney Concert Hall as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella new music series, employs a toy piano, hotel desk bells, melodicas (with foot pumps), tuned cowbells, tuning forks, conch shells and a "wrenchophone. " The concert, to be conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky, also will feature works by Stockhausen and Cage.

After nearly 10 years, two U.S. presidential elections and a near-complete global financial collapse, the Canadian collective Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a new album last week. Why is that contextualizing necessary? The band's exquisite brand of experimental rock, which combines noise, guitars, strings and martial percussion, constitutes the most politically charged, instrumental music of the last 25 years. It's a curious paradox, but not without precedent. Jazz has a rich history as music of social consciousness, and Godspeed cited Ornette Coleman in a recent email exchange with the Guardian , which amounted to the band's most direct statement about its self-described joyous noise.

MUSIC The seven-woman-strong percussion ensemble Adaawe blends African beats and gospel harmonies with pop and R&B for a new musical twist on an ancient Ghanaian tradition. Expect an energetic fusion of voice and drum. The group's soon-to-be released album is "Passages. " Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. 8 p.m. Fri. $20. (310) 440-4500. http://www.skirball.org

Dressed mundanely in a teal blouse framed by a cream-colored jacket and slacks, Sofia Gubaidulina could be just another diminutive retiree, ready for a game of canasta or a lap around the mall. But in fact this unassuming senior citizen, who remains unknown to most Americans, is among the world's foremost composers. Her scores have made a deep impression on such prominent musicians as the violinists Gidon Kremer and Anne-Sophie Mutter, and, more recently, on Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Gustavo Dudamel.