Pop and classical music concerts to warm up your winter

It may be cold outside, but it promises to be cozy in the theaters, concert halls, and intimate clubs where these recommended pop and classical music performances will be staged in the weeks leading up to the spring solstice.

When it comes to classical, treat yourself to a bunch of visiting musicians. In pop, there aren’t too many big names on this list of picks — those will arrive later in the year. But until then, let the music in small- to medium-sized music venues keep you warm, and spring will be here before you know it.

The Philly band fronted by Marisa Dabice released the powerhouse I Got Heaven last year, which moved from shimmery quiet to high volume fury in the blink of an eye and topped Dan DeLuca’s best albums of 2024 list. The band is playing a clutch of East Coast dates this winter before hitting festivals like Bonnaroo this summer.

thequeenwilmington.com, 302-400-7020

The Philadelphia Orchestra’s shorter and chattier concert format continues with an exploration of The Planets, Holst’s suite of musical impressions both astronomical and astrological. At just 60 minutes, the concert is prefaced with a happy hour and followed by a discussion with the artists. The orchestra, rendered ethereal with sopranos and altos of the Philadelphia Symphonic Choir, is led by conductor Daniele Rustioni.

ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

Jacobs is known for Sisyphean feats like playing an 18-hour marathon of works by Bach. Here at the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, the Curtis Institute alum takes on Mendelssohn’s moody-sweet-triumphant Organ Sonata No. 1, Ives’ thrilling Variations on “America,” the melancholic Franck Prelude, Fugue and Variation,­­­ and, of course, Bach. Incredibly, the recital is free.

ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

The Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley-fronted Alabama-born band put on a blistering marathon show last year at the TLA playing their 2001 Lynyrd Skynyrd-inspired Southern Rock Opera in its entirety. Now they’re bringing it back to Ardmore, a few weeks before Hood will release his first solo album in 13 years, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams.

ardmoremusichall.com, 610-649-8389

The Turkish pianist has occasionally drawn attention for tweeting on nonmusical topics, most recently criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policies. He is also a prolific composer, and on this stop of his North American tour, he plays a program of his own works.

pennlivearts.org, 215-898-3900

The Philly punk band par excellence, who released two fab singles in “Boy’s Life” and “Attitude” in 2024, has a new album on Born Losers Records on the way in 2025. The band will be shooting a video and playing a full live set at this show.

ortliebs.com

“When God made woman from that rib, it was the smartest thing she ever did,” blues singer Shemekia Copeland sings on the title track of her 12th album, Blame It On Eve. The daughter of late blues guitarist Johnny Copeland is up for two Grammys on Feb. 2, so she might have something to celebrate at this Zellerbach Theatre show.

pennlivearts.org, 215-898-3900

The lone arena headliner playing South Philly this winter is Ballerini, the country star who has guested on The Voice and will join the singing competition show as a full-time coach in March, joining Michael Bublé, Adam Levine, and John Legend. She’s touring behind her fifth album, Patterns, which crosses over to folk-pop with a duet with Noah Kahan on “Cowboys Cry Too.”

WellsFargoCenterPhilly.com, 215-336-3600

Panda Bear is Noah Lennox, the Baltimore-raised, Lisbon-based electronic musician and songwriter who went to high school in Chester County, and is a member of experimental pop band Animal Collective. His 10th solo album, Sinister Grift, comes out Feb. 28. Chillwave star Toro Y Moi opens.

franklinmusichall.com

The lead singer of Scottish synth-pop band Chvrches has released Vicious Creature, a solo album that moves her closer to mainstream pop, with the help of producers like Tobias Jesso and Ethan Grushka, who have worked with big stars like Adele and Dua Lipa. If Vicious Creature doesn’t wind up elevating Mayberry to that level, a return to Chvrches awaits, with the band not officially broken up, but on hiatus.

utphilly.com, 215-232-2100

When Billie Eilish played the Wells Fargo Center last fall, it was the first time she went on tour without her songwriting partner and brother Finneas O’Connell. She did just fine without him, and now her big bro is also out on his own, flying solo on tour for his new For Cryin’ Out Loud!

thefillmorephilly.com, 215-309-0150

Big Tuba, which will be released on Feb. 28, is New Orleans’ Hot 8 Brass Band’s tribute to its late founder, sousaphonist Bennie Pete, who died in 2021. New Orleanians mourn by celebrating the dead, and this show in the run-up to Mardi Gras will be a riotous affair. With Jazztronauts.

worldcafelive.org, 215-222-1400

Kavakos’ abundant muscle and polish are promising qualities for the shimmer and heroism of the Korngold Violin Concerto. And with Luisi on the podium and Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 on the program, listeners can look forward to a warm, extended late-Romantic embrace. The concert opens with Bent Sørensen’s Evening Land, which, at its premiere by the New York Philharmonic in 2017, was described by the New York Times as a “stirring work” with melody everywhere.

ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

Elvis Costello and his longtime pianist Steve Nieve are going on a duo tour. And while there is not a Philly date on the itinerary, the stripped-down evening, which should give Costello plenty of opportunity to essay quieter songs like “Almost Blue” and “Shot With His Own Gun” from his copious catalog, is circling the city. The tour opens in Easton on Feb. 19, then plays Red Bank on Feb. 21 and the Grand in Wilmington on the next night.

thegrandwilmington.org, 302-652-5577

Sir Rod turned 80 this month, and he’s celebrating by staying busy. His “One Last Time” tour includes a Las Vegas residency, a gig at the Glastonbury Festival, and a summer shed tour that will bring him to the Mann Center in July. But first, the “Maggie May” singer, who was once one of the greatest of rock and roll vocalists, is kicking it all off with a show at the Hard Rock in Atlantic City.

entertainment.hardrock.com

Nashville songsmith extraordinaire Jason Isbell has a new solo acoustic album, Foxes In The Snow, due March 7. Will it be Isbell’s Nebraska? A breakup up album in the wake of his split with Amanda Shires? Fans can find out when he comes to the McCarter Theatre in Princeton.

mccarter.org, 609-258-2787

Trifonov has an ongoing relationship with the Philadelphia Orchestra, but in this solo recital he is the orchestra in Mikhail Pletnev’s piano transcription/concert suite from Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty. Also on the program: the Tchaikovsky student-era Piano Sonata in C Sharp Minor, Barber’s knockout of a piano sonata, and a fair flock of Chopin waltzes.

ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

Father John Misty’s most notorious Philly-area show will always be the 2016 date at the XPoNential Music Festival in Camden when he jettisoned his set list and went on a lengthy rant about Donald Trump being the presidential nominee. In more recent appearances, the funny, acerbic songwriter born Josh Tillman has stuck to the script, and he has an excellent one to follow in his 2024 album Mahashmashana.

thefillmorephilly.com, 215-309-0150

Los Angeles composer and orchestrator Adrian Younge makes lush retro-funk and R&B, drawing on blaxploitation soundtracks and Philly soul sounds of the 1970s in his collaborations with members of the Stylistics, Wu Tang Clan, and A Tribe Called Quest. Here, he’ll perform his cinematic Something About April trilogy with a 10-piece band.

johnnybrendas.com, 215-739-9684

This should be a treat. Rufus Wainwright is the pianist, singer, and composer whose first musical, Opening Night, based on the John Cassavetes 1977 movie of the same name, opened last year in London. And his most recent album is 2020’s Unfollow The Rules. This career-spanning “Going To A Town” solo tour is playing the Sellersville Theater.

st94.com, 215-257-5808

Actor Michael Shannon and guitarist Jason Narducy are in the early R.E.M. business. Last year, Shannon — who starred in Boardwalk Empire and as George Jones opposite Jessica Chastain in George & Tammy — toured with Narducy and an all-star band covering the Athens, Ga., band’s Murmur, plus hits. It was a hoot, with Kurt Vile joining them in Ardmore. This time they’re playing the larger Union Transfer and covering 1985’s Fables of the Reconstruction.

utphilly.com, 215-232-2100

Tilson Thomas led Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2017, and it suddenly seems a long time ago. It was pre-pandemic and before the conductor’s 2021 diagnosis of terminal glioblastoma. Now 80, Thomas is returning to the orchestra’s podium with the same Beethoven score, Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and his own Agnegram, an exuberant tribute to San Francisco Symphony patron Agnes Albert.

ensembleartsphilly.org, 215-893-1999

The Avengers — that’s the San Francisco punk-rock band led by Penelope Houston, not the ‘60s Brit TV show starring Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee — are coming. The venue is Nikki Lopez, in the South Street spot that formerly housed J.C. Dobbs, which will be reborn in February as a bar/hot dog joint/music venue.

instagram.com/nikkilopezphilly

Jorja Smith never overdoes it. Both of the British singer’s albums — her 2018 debut Lost & Found and 2023’s Falling or Flying — are nuanced exercises in restraint, highly efficient affairs in which she demonstrates her expertise in imparting emotional impact on modern R&B songs that are never unnecessarily showy. RIYL Sade and Amy Winehouse.

themetphilly.com, 800-653-8000