The many sides of Pinchas Zukerman

Pinchas Zukerman is one of a handful of musicians to achieve fame on four fronts: violinist, violist, conductor and chamber musician.

Seattle audiences will hear him in three of those roles (violinist, conductor, chamber musician) in the coming days, beginning with a Monday program featuring the Zukerman Chamber Players in the intimate Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall. The concert has Zukerman on the violin (the instrument for which he's still best known), with four of his young protégés from Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra: violinist Jessica Linnebach, violists Jethro Marks and Ashan Pillai, and cellist Amanda Forsyth.

They'll play two viola quintets, by Brahms (Op. 111) and Mozart (K.516); 7:30 p.m. Monday, Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle.

Zukerman's weeklong residency in Seattle continues with the Mainly Mozart Series on Thursday (7:30 p.m.) and Oct. 14 (8 p.m.), when he conducts and solos in an all-Mozart Seattle Symphony program in the Benaroya mainstage. The program is enticing: the Symphony No. 39, one of Mozart's fabled last three symphonies; the Serenade No. 6 ("Serenata Notturna") and two shorter pieces — the Adagio in E Major (K.261) and Rondo in C Major (K.373).

Finally, next Friday Zukerman will play one of the great concertos of the violin repertoire, the Beethoven Concerto, in an 8 p.m. Seattle Symphony program that he also will conduct (along with the Beethoven Symphony No. 2).

Zukerman, who is music director of Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, also chairs the Pinchas Zukerman Performance Program at the Manhattan School of Music. An internationally renowned recitalist for almost four decades, Zukerman will tour with his longtime violinist friend Itzhak Perlman in a duo program that will hit eight eastern cities (unfortunately they aren't coming to Seattle). Previous music directorships and posts have been with a long string of orchestras, from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Dallas Symphony to London's South Bank Festival and the Baltimore Symphony's Summer MusicFest.

Meanwhile, don't forget your opportunity to hear another great fiddler, a generation behind Zukerman: the youthful Stefan Jackiw, who plays the Mendelssohn Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony in three remaining performances: 8 p.m. today and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, in Benaroya Hall.

For tickets to all Seattle Symphony programs, call 206-215-4747 or go to www.seattlesymphony.org.

The University of Puget Sound celebrates the 100th birthday of noted 20th-century composer Dmitri Shostakovich, in a chamber program on the Jacobsen Series that will showcase some of Shostakovich's finest works: the String Quartet No. 13, Piano Trio No. 2 and Prelude and Fugue No. 21 (Op. 87).

The performers include cellists Cordelia Wikarski-Miedel and Kevin Krentz; pianist Tanya Stambuk; violist Joyce Ramée, and three violinists: Maria Sampen, Timothy Christie and Kwan Bin Park. Geoffrey Block provides the introductions.

The program, at 7:30 tonight in Schneebeck Concert Hall on the UPS campus, is free to UPS students; everybody else can purchase tickets by phone at 253-879-3419 or at the door.

A promising Skagit Opera production of "Carmen" provides a good excuse to check out the newish McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon (2501 E. College Way, www.mcintyrehall.org), while hearing one of the most popular operas of all time. The production team needs no introduction to Northwest operagoers: Baritone/stage director Erich Parce is the director, and the conductor is Dean Williamson (whose work with Seattle Opera and its Young Artists productions has been stellar). Sarah Heltzel, who sang an excellent Cherubino in one of those Young Artists shows and also appeared in Seattle Opera's "Ring," takes on the title role of Carmen; her Don Jose is Stephen Rumph, who teaches music history at the University of Washington and has sung tenor roles at Tacoma Opera and several other Northwest groups.

Appearing as Escamillo will be Morgan Smith, a baritone who has appeared with Seattle Opera since 2001, as well as with the orchestras of Baltimore, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C. Locally, he also will be remembered for his performances in the title role of "Brundibar" for Music of Remembrance, with Gerard Schwarz conducting.

The opera, which runs through Oct. 15, will be sung in English. This week's performances are at 7:30 tonight and 2 p.m. Sunday. (Tickets at the above McIntyre Hall Web site, or 360-416-7727 or toll-free at 866-624-6897).

Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com