Staff Picks

Extraordinary Korean violinist Hahn-Bin—flamboyant, audacious, exuberant and deeply musical, solos in Seattle Symphony’s Celebrate Asia! program at Benaroya Hall. It’s a concert unlike any other, emphasizing our area’s diverse Asian community with music both Eastern (Kay He, Zhou Long) and Western (Gershwin and Tchaikovsky), including solo trumpeter Cuong Vu with his group and Jie Ma playing the expressive Asian lute called the pipa. Local music groups from various Asian communities perform in the lobby, and you’ll see many people in beautiful traditional attire, performers and audience...

Here's the key rule of this year’s Sound Off!, the EMP's annual Battle of the Bands: "All band members must have been born on or after March 4, 1990." In other words, you're old! No, no. In other words, all the people in the bands that compete in Sound Off! must be under 21. Previous winners include younger versions of current favorites the Lonely Forest, the Globes and Brite Futures, all of whom signed to record labels shortly after their victories. What you witness during the four rounds of Sound Off! (the finals are March 3) is Seattle's musical future.

No use fronting: We love G. Love. We love him for consistently living up to the lo-fi blues/hip-hop swagger of his 1994 debut (last year's lackluster collab with the Avett Brothers notwithstanding). We love him as the affable, attractive white boy who at first was in love with someone else's music and later found his own voice. We love him despite the fact that he paved the way for beach-pop king Jack Johnson (who he discovered) who paved the way for beach pop-knockoff Donavon Frankenreiter. We love him because he did it first, when we were impressionable...

Last time he was on the Song Show, MC Fatal Lucciauno told host Mark Baumgarten about the first time he held a gun, and tearfully recounted the measures his father took to save his son from gang life in Chicago. Then he recited a gripping a cappella rendition of his song “Suicide Note” that left the audience stunned. Now a father himself, Lucciauno returns to talk about his latest release and to share more of his verse, sans accompaniment. Joining him for the quarterly interview show will be earnest folk singer Noah Gundersen and wistful balladeer Robert Deeble.