Augusta Read Thomas wowed audiences and critics at her first Miller Portrait a decade ago, and she remains among the most prominent composers of her generation. Now she returns with a program, including Resounding Earth, a percussion tour-de-force that brings together bells from around the world to create a “transfixing shimmer” (The New York Times). Another highlight is the world premiere of an octet composed especially for the occasion.

Two of last season’s biggest successes reunite for this performance, as electrifying vibraphonist, Warren Wolf joins the Aaron Diehl Trio. Diehl’s passion, technical mastery, and love of both jazz and classical music find a partner in Wolf, his friend and a fellow young bandleader with “firecracker assurance” (New York Times). The quartet’s dynamic sounds draws inspiration from John Lewis’ Modern Jazz Quartet with vibraphonist Milt Jackson, an appreciation jazz lovers will recognize in the quartet’s captivating mix of bebop and hard-swing with melodic precision.

Bang on a Can co-founder Michael Gordon blends “the fury of punk rock, the nervous brilliance of free jazz and the intransigence of classical modernism” (The New York Times). He’s constantly staking out new territory—a quest exemplified by Hyper, his musical manifestation of a never-ending staircase that, curiously, delivers the climber back to the point where they began. This same inquisitiveness draws him to Bach, a harmonic and structural innovator. The program pairs Gordon’s chamber pieces with two of Bach’s concertos.

  The Heyman Center for the Humanities presents “WORDLESS!”

  In his Pulitzer prize-winning masterpiece, Maus, Art Spiegelman changed the definition of comics forever. In “WORDLESS!”—a new and stimulating hybrid of slides, talk, and musical performance—he probes further into the nature and possibilities of his medium.

  Spiegelman, a noted historian and theorist of comics as well as an artist, collaborates with Phillip Johnston, the critically acclaimed jazz composer who wrote all-new scores he will be performing live with his sextet. Johnston’s music accompanies the cartoonist’s personal tour of the first legitimate “graphic novels”— silent picture stories made by early 20th century masters like Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward and Milt Gross—and their influence on him. As Spiegelman explores “the battle between Words and Pictures,” he smashes at the hyphen between High and Low Art in a presentation featuring a new work drawn specifically for this project, “Shaping Thought.”

A song and dance show celebrating tap dancing stars, styles and traditions featuring The Legacy Dancers (a line of fomer Rockettes) with guest stars Mercedes Ellington and Lee Roy Reams. The show is co-produced/directed/choreographed by Karyn Tomczak and Mary Six Rupert, and presented by Legacy 36, LLC in association with the Ziegfeld Society.

For over 30 years the Harmony Sweepstakes has been delighting audiences and still the event continues to grow in popularity. The show was the inspiration for the hit NBC show The Sing-Off, which aired nation-wide on NBC and brought even more interest to the art of a cappella singing. A cappella enjoyed international exposure with the success of the recent hit movie Pitch Perfect, which showcased how fun a cappella competitions can be.

This annual national competition draws from hundreds of vocal groups from around the country with regional competitions in eight cities. The winning group from each festival is flown to perform in front of celebrity judges and a sold out house of enthusiastic a cappella fans at the National Finals. The competition embraces all styles of music performed a cappella, from the traditional forms of doo-wop & barbershop, gospel & jazz to the exciting and innovative new directions of contemporary vocal music. You will be amazed at the versatility of the human voice on display in this most exhilarating evening of vocal harmony singing.

Tickets: Day Of Sales $29.

Bring a friend, grab a drink, and join some of today’s most interesting performers onstage at Miller Theatre on select early evenings.

This “fearless” (Time Out New York) quartet performs two new works that introduce an extra component to their unique piano and percussion make-up: electronics. Thomas Meadowcroft explores how we make and consume music in Walkman Antiquarian, overlaying the live performance with audio samples. Harmonies slide into focus and dissolve in Constellations, as the Canadian-born composer and visual artist Chiyoko Szlavnics interweaves sinewaves with acoustic instrumentation.

Concerts start at 6 p.m. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis, and doors open at 5:30 p.m.

The shipwrecked hero Ulysses is the inspiration for this encore performance by Les Délices, with special guest soprano Clara Rottsolk. Selections from Jean-Féry Rebel’s little-known opera Ulysse provide the centerpiece, with a focus on a love triangle between the witch Circe, Ulysses, and his wife Penelope. Works by Thomas-Louis Bourgeois and Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre—a child prodigy, and the first French woman ever to compose an opera—allow Les Délices to showcase a range of styles, as well as their own far-reaching talents.

Institute for Medieval Japanese Studies: Japanese Cultural Heritage Initiatives cordially invites you to the 10th anniversary celebration of its annual concert: Glories of the Japanese Music Heritage: Ancient Soundscapes Reborn – Japanese Sacred Gagaku Court Music and Secular Art Music. This year’s concert features three world-renowned Gagaku musicians invited from Japan as well as New York-based artists and students of Columbia University’s Music Performance Program. The program includes classic repertoires as well as contemporary works for Japanese heritage instruments by John Cage, Toshi Ichiyanagi, John Kaizan Neptune, and others. The concert is free and open to the public, but please register at www.medievaljapanesestudies.org in advance.

  The President has launched a sustained, long-term military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. But did he have constitutional power to do so? Join us for an informative debate. The Constitution carefully divides the war powers of the United States between Congress and the President. Article II provides that “The President shall be Commander in Chief.” But Article I provides that “The Congress shall have Power ... To Declare War.” In this case, Congress has not declared war; the President ordered the attacks unilaterally. Did he exceed his authority and violate the Constitution?

  Presented by the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy at Columbia University, Intelligence Squared U.S., and the National Constitution Center.