Saturday, May 11: Wide-ranging musical fluency runs in the family – in brother Loudon, in nephew Rufus – and Sloan is no exception.

Friday, May 10 and Sunday, May 12: While Mahler’s No. 8 is the one affectionately dubbed the “Symphony of a Thousand” because of its immense ensemble size and logistical challenges (sometimes involving entire second orchestras and choirs performing in the wings, out of audience view), No. 3 is no small and tidy affair. Bard’s performance will employ more than 160 musicians to get it right.

Saturday, May 25: While the eccentric musical visionary Dave Longstreth had been making experimental pop records for years, a pair of major releases – 2009’s Bitte Orca and 2012’s Swing Lo Magellan – firmly established the then-Brooklyn-based ensemble as one of the most formidable voices in the conservatory wing of indie-pop. Everything the man does is challenging, and worth it.

Sunday, May 5: “[You] would think they’d been playing together for centuries,” wrote the Boston Globe of the pair’s profound and intuitive rapport.

Saturday, May 4: The singer/songwriter has earned four Grammy Awards, as well as 21 Top 40 hits, including 11 No. 1 singles. She is also an author whose four books include the best-selling memoir Composed, which the Chicago Tribune called “one of the best accounts of an American life you’ll likely ever read.”