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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Pentacle Presents The Gallery: Boston dance concert from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday at The Dance Complex, 536 Massachusetts Ave., Central Square. General admission tickets are $15 in advance, or $20 at the door. 

Pentacle highlights small and mid-sized companies of dancers and theatrical artists, and this annual showcase imports for the weekend – mainly from New York – an eclectic group of troupes working in a range of styles, including pieces from Amirov Dance (above), CoreDance Contemporary, Movement of the People, Schoen Movement and Thomas/Ortiz Dance. Information is here.

The Great Clarinet Summit from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday (General admission is $15) followed by The MIT Concert Choir’s “The Spectre’s Bride” from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday (General admission is $5) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kresge Auditorium, 48 Massachusetts Ave.

A unique event brings together clarinetists such as Don Byron (above, in a photo by L. Barry Hetherington), Anat Cohen, Evan Ziporyn, Billy Novick and Eran Egozy along with the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and MIT Wind Ensemble, led by music director Frederick Harris Jr. for a wide-ranging program that includes a movement from Byron’s Concerto for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble and the world premiere of Jamshied Sharifi’s “Ornament Of The World,” a community play-along piece featuring all guest soloists and attending clarinetists of all ages. Information is here. The next day has the institute’s Concert Choir singing an eerie pair of works: Dvořák’s “The Spectre’s Bride” (with Czech poet Karel Jaromír Erben’s “Wedding Shirt”) and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lover’s Ghost.” William Cutter conducts with soloists Jodie Fernandes, soprano; William Hite, tenor; and  David Tinervia, baritone. Information is here.

Amplified: A Diode art and club fundraiser from 9 p.m. Friday to 2 a.m. Sunday at the American Legion Marsh Post, 5 Greenough Blvd., West Cambridge. Tickets are $15 in advance ($15.76 with the online service fee).

It’s a fundraiser for setting up a Diode camp at the summertime Firefly arts festival in Vermont, but that doesn’t affect appreciation of some fun art, a solid sound system and the accomplished work of DJs Ammon EP, Gary Carlow & Keith Mattar and Boston underground scene star Xoce – also known as the shamanic Jose Zamora, who specializes in dark, throbbing rhythms with sharp and alerting undertones. This taste of Diode is the only place to see the group’s art unless you plan to go to Firefly. Information is here.

Porchfest, from noon to 6 p.m. Saturday throughout Somerville. Free.

Somerville’s “decentralized music festival” returns for its eighth year, presenting literally hundreds of musicians (and some comedians) on an underused public venue: the porch. The musical styles and options are literally all over the place, though starting in the west from Teele Square (Somerville indy band Lockette, above, will be at 206 Holland St.) to Davis Square from noon to 2 p.m.; hitting central Somerville including Magoun Square and Spring Hill from 2 to 4 p.m. and winding up in East Somerville, including Winter Hill and Ward Two, from 4 to 6 p.m. – where Union Square’s Bow Market gets a ribbon-cutting and starts serving up some food, namely the Venezuelan arepas of Carolicious and the Nibble Kitchen (starting at 2 p.m.). There’s a complete map, performance time, date and style description, along with searchable band profiles (and even sample songs) here.

Update from the City of Somerville:

East Somerville Walking Tour from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, meeting at Somerville City Hall, 93 Highland Ave., in the Winter Hill neighborhood. Free.

With the MBTA green line extension project arriving soon (?) to change Gilman Square and East Somerville irrevocably, may as well see what we’re losing or have already lost. Ed Gordon, president of the New England chapter of the Victorian Society in America, promises a lively, informative march around historic buildings and landscapes, rain or shine, ending at Vinny’s Ristorante – a neighborhood institution at 76 Broadway – for free refreshments. Information is here.