Seven Concerts in Less Than 48 Hours

The Queens hills are alive with the sound of music…high quality and diverse music. This weekend there’s something for just about every ear as bands are ready to play jazz, symphony, folk, classical, Irish, and bee bop. There’s even an autism-friendly trombone concert. Details on seven performances are after the jump.

The jams start on Friday, when National Endowment for the Arts jazz master Jimmy Heath, a saxophonist, plays with two other NEA legends, pianist Barry Harris and trumpeter Jimmy Owens, at Flushing Town Hall at around 8 pm.

Stay in the same concert hall on Saturday to check out Tin Throat Ensemble (below), a folky group of talented musicians who love to improvise while playing avant-garde and contemporary classics, at 2 pm. Two more shows start at 7:30 pm: the Lexington Piano Trio with Beethoven and Rachmaninoff; and the Brock McGuire Band, a few Irish lads who jam on accordion, fiddle, and banjo. At 8 pm, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, featuring violin soloist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and celebrated conductor Pavel Kogan, plays orchestral, operatic, and choral classics, including ditties by Tchaikovsky and Brahms.

Modern trombone collective Guidonian Hand gives an interactive performance developed specifically for autistic individuals and their families in Forest Hills at 11 am. Later on at 3 pm in Jamaica, the Bill Jacobs Ensemble (top), which includes alto sax, piano, bass, drum, percussion, and congas, plays bee-bop, jazz, and original arrangements.

Bullet details:

• NEA Jazz Masters: Swing Broadway, Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Boulevard, Flushing, November 14th, 8 pm, $20-$40;
• Tin Throat Ensemble, Flushing Town Hall, November 15th, 2 pm, free;
• Lexington Piano Trio: Musica Reginae, The Church-in-the-Gardens, 50 Ascan Avenue, Forest Hills Gardens, November 15th, 7:30 pm, $20 for adults and seniors/$10 for students with ID/Free for children under 12;
• Brock McGuire Band, New York Irish Center, 10-40 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, November 15th, 7:30 pm, $22/$11 for seniors, unemployed, and students;
• Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Colden Auditorium, Queens College, 65-30 Kissena Boulevard, Flushing, November 15th, 8 pm, $25-$45;
• Music for Autism: Guidonian Hand, Central Queens Y, 67-09 108th Street, Forest Hills, November 16th, 11 am, free; and
• Live Jazz, Jamaica Performing Arts Center, 153-10 Jamaica Avenue, November 16th, 3 pm, $15 adults/$12 seniors and students.

Top photo: Bill Jacobs Ensemble; bottom photo: Tin Throat Ensemble