James Keepnews of Elysium Furnace Works is one of the region’s most energetic and least discouraged advocates for some kinds of music that we can’t seem to agree on a name for.

Not content to be an heir or even the perfection of a tradition, middle-period Beethoven is associated with the Heroic impulse: the expansive, formal grandeur of art that really, really wants to matter. And of course, that bid worked out pretty well. Every symphonic composer thereafter had to answer directly to Beethoven’s nine in the same way that every rock band answers to the Beatles, even if the answer is no.

Saturday, Feb. 1: You don’t need any experience as a potter to participate in one of the three one-hour guided sessions.

Saturday, Feb. 15: At the Sankofa event, attendees can participate in the making of a strip-weave community quilt or learn the secrets of traditional basketmaking from three generations of Gullah Geechee women. Another workshop will teach natural dyeing of upcycled fabrics using local plants and West African techniques. Community loom-weaving will go on all day.

Saturday, Feb. 1: With a new band in tow, and some formidable special guests, the Nathans are prepared to unveil Mach Two with full fanfare.

Saturday, Feb. 1: The award-winning Woodstock-based chorus will present a program titled Frets, Keys & Pipes.

Saturday, Jan. 25: Known among other things for her multiyear “endurance art” pieces, for her Sacred Sex workshops with Annie Sprinkle and Barbara Carrellas, for founding the Art/Life Institute in Kingston, for having spent two years as a nun and for fascination with the subjects of chickens and death, internationally renowned performance artist Linda Mary Montano regularly returns to her birthplace, Saugerties, for an audience-participation event.

Saturday, Jan. 25: Individually, the Levin Brothers have been involved in some of the most daring and experimental music of the last 50 years: Tony cutting a striking figure as bassist and Chapman-stick player with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, his own project Stickmen and many more; Pete working more behind-the-scenes as an ace keyboardist and first-call synthesist on the legendary New York session scene of the ’70s and beyond, moving effortlessly between jazz and pop.

Saturday, Jan. 25: Bard’s US-China Music Institute presents The Sound of Spring, its first annual Chinese New Year Concert featuring Bard College’s The Orchestra.A special Chinese New Year public reception to welcome in the Year of the Rat before the concert starts at 6 p.m.