'A WITTY EXPLORATION ON CAMPUS'S MAIN STAGE: For this year's Main Stage Dance-Theatre Festival, UC Davis undergraduate choreographers are presenting three works that "express a witty exploration of dire circumstances ordered in ascending peculiarity."

The works:

• Prisma, by Toni Alejandria.
• Reparté, by Ann Marie Dragich
• Life Like Tales, by Vivian Thorne

Performances are scheduled in Main Theatre as follows: 8 p.m. April 10 (preview), and April 11, 12 and 18; 1 and 3 p.m. April 19, Picnic Day; and 2 p.m. April 20. Reduced ticket prices are offered for both Picnic Day performances: $5 per person, or $7 for two.

EMPYREAN ENSEMBLE: UC Davis' Empyrean Ensemble is celebrating female composers at a concert due to be performed three times in April, including once at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

The concert title is The 51% Majority, celebrating the music of international female composers, with the percentage a reference to the fact that women make up the majority of the world's population.

"Only within the last 100 years have women artists begun to gain the prominence and wide-ranging influence of their long-standing male counterparts," the ensemble declared in its season announcement.

The concert schedule:

• April 5 -- 7:30 p.m., Music Recital Hall, UC Santa Cruz.
• April 13 -- 8 p.m., Studio Theatre, Mondavi Center. Preconcert talk, 7 p.m., "Demystifying the Music," with UC Davis ethnomusicologist Sandra Graham
• April 18 -- 8 p.m., Old First Concerts, Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento St., San Francisco.

The program includes piano etudes by Unsuk Chin and Augusta Read Thomas, Binge Delirium for solo percussion by Yu-Hui Chang, Sounds of the Forest by Sofia Gubaidulina, Several Concertos by Judith Weir, Circus Maximus by Laurie San Martin and the world premiere of The Memory Palace by Ann Callaway.

DANCES WITH DUKE: The African Tarantella Project: Dances With Duke, scheduled for April 10 at the Mondavi Center, features vibraphonist Stefon Harris and his nine-piece band performing stunning reorchestrations of compositions by Duke Ellington as well as Harris' own works.

The concert is set for 8 p.m. in Jackson Hall. A preperformance lecture by Gary Vercelli, director of jazz programming at KXJZ radio, is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Mondavi Center's Studio Theatre.

Harris' arrangements apply the wide range of tone colors offered by his unique nonet -- clarinet, trombone, flute, viola and cello, in addition to vibes, piano, bass and drums -- to form a richly textured sound that is at once vital and innovative yet true to Ellington's vision in pieces from the Duke's New Orleans Suite and The Queen's Suite, and Harris' The Gardiner Meditations.

PERCUSSION FESTIVAL: The Department of Music plans two evening concerts in conjunction with a Percussion Festival in April. The concerts are scheduled at 8 p.m. in the Studio Theatre at the Mondavi Center.

• April 12 -- Featuring festival participants and guest artists.
• April 14 -- Featuring Chris Froh, percussion; Ellen Ruth Rose, viola; and compositions by Linda Bouchard: new work for viola, percussion and electronics (world premiere); John MacCallum: new work for percussion and electronics; and Aaron Einbond: new work for viola and electronics.

The festival is scheduled for April 10-14, under Froh's direction. He is a lecturer in the music department, and a member of the university's Empryean Ensemble.

TICKETS

Tickets for the Empyrean Ensemble’s April 13 concert, the Main Stage Dance-Theatre Festival and the percussion concerts are available through the Mondavi Center box office: (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787, or www.mondaviarts.org.