Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. is due at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts next week to in the Disntiguished Speaker series.

Gates, head of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Studies, plans a talk titled "African American Lives — Genealogy, Genetics and Black History" — addressing research and DNA analysis, and sharing poignant family stories in a lively lecture on individual lineage and African American history.

Gates had been scheduled to deliver his talk earlier this year, but postponed it due to the death of a Harvard colleague.

The new date is Monday, May 9, starting at 8 p.m. in Jackson Hall.

More at the Mondavi

• UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, with the University Chorus —  7 p.m. Sunday, May 15, Jackson Hall. See separate story.

• UC Davis Baroque Ensemble, with the Davis High School Baroque Enemble — Works by Geminiani, Mozart and Vivaldi. 3 p.m. Sunday, May 22, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

• UC Davis' Empyrean Ensemble: New Music from Davis — New works by graduate composers Hendel Almetus, Gabriel Bolaños, Ben Irwin, Scott Perry, Garrett Shatzer, Liam Wade and Ching-Yi Wang. 7 p.m. Monday, May 23, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

• Tony Bennett — This singer has been leaving his heart in San Francisco for decades, and now he can leave it here, too, after performing at the Mondavi Center for the first time. 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, Jackson Hall.

• UC Davis Jazz Bands: Guest Artists — Featuring saxophonist Gregory Yasinitsky, who has performed with such singers as Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 25, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre.

• UC Davis Concert Band: Earth Songs — Celebrating the biological, ecological and agricultural sciences. Also: a tribute to the bicycle, featuring well-known bicycle tunes. 7 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, Jackson Hall.

• UC Davis Symphony Orchestra — Family Concert, featuring the winners of the orchestra's 2011 Concerto Competition and the Composition Award. 7 p.m. Thursday, June 2, Jackson Hall. See separate story.

• Alexander String Quartet — Beethoven's String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132, and String Quartet in F Major, Op. 135. This is the last of the quartet's four concert dates in the Mondavi Center's 2010-11 season, and brings to a close the quartet's three-year Mondavi Center cycle of performing all of Beethoven’s string quartets. 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday, June 5, Vanderhoef Studio Theatre. Postperformance question-and-answer session with quartet members. The 2 p.m. concert is sold out; check with the box office about the waiting list.

• Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra — The “greatest large jazz ensemble working today,” according to the Chicago Tribune, draws from an extensive repertoire, including original works by Marsalis, Ted Nash and other members of the group. Marsalis, trumpeter, and the orchestra’s leader and music director, received the Pulitzer Prize in music in 1997 — becoming the first jazz artist to be so honored. He earned the prize for Blood on the Fields, a commissioned work for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the orchestra’s parent organization (with Marsalis as artistic director). 8 p.m. Saturday, June 18, Jackson Hall.

• Pink Martini — A 12-member band that draws inspiration jazz, classical, old-fashioned pop and the romantic Hollywood musicals of the 1940s and ’50s — with a more global perspective. As Pink Martini bandleader and pianist Thomas Lauderdale said, “If the United Nations had a house band in 1962, then hopefully we’d be that band.” Pink Martini’s latest album is Splendour in the Grass, described as a virtual carnival of musical influences, with one grand purpose: to rebuild a culture that sings and dances. 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 5, Jackson Hall.

Tickets are available online, or by visiting or calling the Mondavi Center box office, (530) 754-2787 or (866) 754-2787. Box office hours: noon-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday.