Classical

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Tomo Nakayama With his three month-long residency at Town Hall a wrap and a new recording completed, singer-songwriter Tomo Nakayama wanted to do something different to celebrate the release of his album, Fog on the Lens.

The 34-year-old solo artist, collaborator, and recent actor-who can be seen alongside Ellen Page in Lynn Shelton’s 2013 Touchy Feely-came up with an idea for a marathon-an album release marathon. The one-day event will comprise 14 mini-shows at non-traditional venues from a yoga studio to a grocery co-op to a hair salon. If all goes according to plan, that is. “I have the drives all figured out,” he says. “We’re trying to travel light and still make it a show.”

He’ll attempt the feat-which sometimes in the span of 30 minutes will involve setting up, playing the show, packing up, and moving to the next spot-with a small crew including Yuuki Matthews of the Shins, who helped produce the new record. Despite the logistical challenges of navigating Seattle traffic these days, Nakayama is excited about what the unconventional format might bring about. “I think it’s interesting to people,” he explains. While some of his fans and friends can head out for a late night show, he says, others have to work in the morning, or are moms with young children. “I wanted to do something a little more smaller and more intimate, at places that weren’t normally [venues] you’d hear music in the background and random live music during the day.” Though he took to Facebook and his website to announce his plans, he wants to establish a personal connection with the listeners that come out, beyond the web. “We’re really kind of living in a totally different reality, stuck on social media,” he says. “I know [artists] with hundreds of followers who never go out and play shows and meet people.” Playing to the smaller crowd and getting to know his fans, Nakayama says, is “more gratifying to me.” What’s more, the unexpected surprise of a live music at, say, Lifelong Thrift Store, where he’s slated to gig at 2:30 p.m., will hopefully inspire his accidental listeners to seek out more live music in Seattle.

“We’re a close-knit community of people working together to do something unique and different,” he says, adding, “And personal, which I think is the most important.” Porchlight Coffee & Records, 1318 E. Pike St.

Seattle, WA 98122 No Cover Tuesday, November 4, 2014, 9am

The Met: Live in HD Opera from NYC at a moviehouse near you. This week, Bizet’s Carmen: a bit long, but otherwise perfect for opera newbies (you can already whistle a few of the tunes). See fathomevents.com for participating theaters. 10 a.m. Sat., Nov. 1; encored 6:30 p.m. Wed., Nov. 5. Various locations, $18 Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 6:30pm

NOW Ensemble Music by Judd Greenstein and Derek Bermel, part of the Town Music series. Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle, WA 98101 $5-$25 Wednesday, November 5, 2014, 7:30pm

Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, November 9, 2014, 9:30pm

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Fidelio Trio “While the tonal system, in an atrophied or vestigial form, is still used today in popular and commercial music, and even occasionally in the works of backward-looking serious composers, it is no longer employed by serious composers of the mainstream. It has been replaced or succeeded by the 12-tone system.” This imperious admonition earned composer Charles Wuorinen no friends when he dropped it on the first page of the first chapter of his 1979 textbook Simple Composition. For decades (he’s 76), Wuorinen has held aloft the banner of modernism at its most uncompromising and cantankerous. What does his own music sound like? Well, the 1983 Piano Trio-which the Fidelio Trio is playing tonight-is as gnarly as the above edict suggests, but nowhere near as dry. Dazzling rather than recondite, its 10 minutes sweep along with an exhilarating rhythmic life; the violin, cello, and piano seem to sideswipe and strike sparks off one another as they hurtle forward. Sponsored by the Washington Composers Forum, the Fidelio will also play music by Johannes Maria Staud, Donnacha Dennehy, and John Harbison. GAVIN BORCHERT Chapel Performance Space (Good Shepherd Center), 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N. $5-$15 Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 8 – 9pm

Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, November 16, 2014, 9:30pm

Compline Services A half-hour meditation each week with the eight-voice Renaissance Singers. Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral, 1245 10th Ave. E. Free Sunday, November 23, 2014, 9:30pm