Michael Zwiebach

Every year, New Music Bay Area observes the summer solstice with a day of music at Oakland's Chapel of the Chimes. Audience members just walk through and discover different musical groups playing in various areas throughout the building and grounds. Because of the way Julia Morgan designed the Chapel, you don't really hear the other musicians until you're right in front of them. It's kind of like a musical maze.

Pink Martini, the self-described “house band of the United Nations,” is back for their third tour of duty with the San Francisco Symphony. The eclectic mix of world music and pop is hip on its own, but their arrangements, already for an expanded band, make them a great fit for an orchestra.

I'm not normally one to recommend complete sets of anything. The complete choral works of Samuel Barber, an odyssey that Voices of Musica Sacra and their music director, John Kendall Bailey, undertake beginning this weekend, is a bit different. The real reason to seek out these concerts is that you probably haven't heard most of the works that are being given a rare outing here.

Sign of the times: The Berkeley Festival and Exhibition is going mostly local this year. That’s in response to the depressed funding cycle that coincided with the serious recession of the past two years. Questions linger about the festival’s stability and long-term organization, but fortunately they stop at the concert hall doors.

The Irene Dalis Vocal Competition may not ring bells of recognition in your head, but young singers are way ahead of you. That’s because the four-year-old competition, which kicks into gear May 22 at the California Theatre in San José, puts a lot of cash in singers’ pockets.

The Young People's Symphony Orchestra concludes their season with the always-surprising concerto competition winners.

Les grâces is a small chamber music group you may not have heard of, but they have a growing reputation. Their upcoming concerts featuring world-class musicians are worth a visit.