UC Davis leaps from February to March with performances by the Concert Band and the Campus Band, the University Chorus and the Alumni Chorus, the Jazz Bands, the Early Music and Baroque ensembles, and the bound-for-Spain Symphony Orchestra.

The Festivity of Bands, scheduled for Leap Day, next Wednesday (Feb. 29), features the UC Davis Concert Band and the UC Davis Campus Band, the Davis High School Band and the Symphonic Wind Ensemble from California State University, Sacramento. The concert will celebrate Fred Lange on the occasion of his upcoming retirement as director of bands at Davis High School for nearly three decades.

The concert is set to begin at 7 p.m. in Jackson Hall at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Here is the program:

• Hindemith — Wind Symphony in B-Flat Major
• Smith — Symphony No. 3 ("Don Quixote")
• Giroux — Legacy
• McBeth — Of Sailors and Whales, op. 78

The March music calendar:

University Chorus and Alumni Chorus — 7 p.m. Sunday, March 4, Jackson Hall.

• James Whitbourn — Luminosity, with Ellen Ruth Rose, viola, and Rita Sahai, tanpura
• John Rutter — Deum, Gloria and Cantus
• Whitbourn — All Shall be Amen and Alleluia

Jazz Bands — 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center

Early Music Ensemble and Baroque Ensemble — 7 p.m. Saturday, March 10, St. Martin’s Church, 640 Hawthorne Lane, Davis

• Perotin — Viderunt omnes
• Pärt — Nunc dimittis
• Tallis — Lamentations of Jeremiah
• Josquin — De profundis
• Bach — Cantata 131, Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir

UC Davis Symphony Orchestra: On Our Way to Spain! — A sampling of what the symphony will play during its March 24-April 4 tour of Spain. Performances are scheduled in the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, and three other major venues, in Madrid, Valencia and Granada. 7 p.m. Sunday, March 11,
Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center

• Debussy — Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (“Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun”)
• Mozart — Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622, with José González Granero, clarinet
• Schumann — Symphony No. 4 in D Minor

Tickets for all except the March 10 are available from the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or mondaviarts.org. For their March 10 concert, the Early Music and Baroque ensembles suggest the following donations: $12 adults, and $6 students and children.

Lecture and concert by Sikkil Gurucharan

The Religious Studies Program announced that it is hosting a lecture and concert featuring a pre-eminent voice in South Indian classical music: the singer Sikkil Gurucharan.

His appearance in the third annual India Studies Lecture Series is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, March 9, in the Technocultural Studies Building (formerly the Art Annex). Admission is free and open to the public.

The organizers said Gurucharan will present a lecture-demonstration on South Indian classical music followed by a concert, with violin and percussion accompanists.

Gurucharan hails from the legendary Sikkil Sisters musical family of iSouth India, only, instead of playing the flute like others in the family, he took to singing. India's Sangeet Natak Akademi (National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama) recognized Gurucharan in the academy’s Yuva Puraskar program: prizes for young artists. He has a number of albums, and collaborated with other artists across musical styles and genres.

Share your Mondavi Center memories

As it approaches its 10th anniversary season, the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts is asking people to share their Mondavi Center memories.

"Our audience has been a vital part of the Mondavi Center’s success over its first 10 years," center officials said in a recent e-mail. "As we approach our 10th anniversary season, in 2012–13, we want to hear your stories! How has the Mondavi Center thrilled you, inspired you and entertained you?"

Sharing a memory could not be easier: On your next visit to the center, simply step inside the Mondavi Memories video booth (before performances or during intermissions) and start talking! The booth is in the Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby.

What should you talk about? Here are some suggestions:

• A favorite performance
• A special evening shared with friend or family
• What the arts and the Mondavi Center bring to your life
• Anything at all

"Your few moments of sharing will play an important role as we get ready to celebrate our 10th season!"

ARTfriends off to Clos Pegase and Hess Collection

The Nelson ARTfriends announced a bus trip to the Napa Valley, to take in the art at the Clos Pegase Winery (owned by UC Davis art museum benefactor Jan Shrem) and the Hess Collection.

The trip, scheduled from 9 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5, includes lunch and wine tasting — and is for ages 21 and up.

In December, UC Davis announced that Shrem had donated $10 million to help build the university's new art museum, and that it would be named after Shrem and his friend and fellow art patron Maria Manetti Farrow. The couple has since married, and the museum will be called the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art

Clos Pegase, according to its website, isv"a celebration of the ancient marriage of wine and art," with the latter comprising an important collection of 20th-century paintings, sculpture and wine-related art as well as antiquities spanning 4,000 years. The collection covers a range of media — from sculptures in granite, bronze, marble and wood, to oils, watercolors and collages, as well as rare artifacts, wine vessels and antique vineyard tools.

Donald Hess' collection initially comprised modern and contemporary works from U.S. and European artists, and has since become international in scope. The Hess Collection website states: "He collects with the uncanny ability to acquire works by lesser known artists who often go on to become well known and respected in their disciplines. His typical commitment to an artist spans decades and various stages of his career.”

The cost is $100 for members, $125 for nonmembers and $75 for students (limit five students), including transportation to and from UC Davis, guided tours, and wine tasting and lunch at Clos Pegase. Reservations are due by April 12 to the Nelson Gallery's Katrina Wong, kliwong@ucdavis.edu or (530) 752-8500. Payment is due by April 17, otherwise your reservations will be foreited.