THE PASSION ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. The Harvard University Choir and The Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra will perform Bach’s “The Passion According to St. John.” Bach’s rendering of Jesus’ final days and subsequent Easter Resurrection is a vivid and dramatic account of the well-known Gospel. Featured solists will include Thomas Gregg, Richard Benefield, Shannon Larkin, Suzanne Ehly and Donald Wiklinson. The evening will also include a brief address by the highly regarded Reverend Gomes. Free.Friday, April 18 at 8 p.m. The Memorial Church. (AAB)

BOSTON PHILHARMONIC. The Boston Philharmonic together with The Bose Discovery Series take an interesting slant on the traditional pre-concert talk in an upcoming concert featuring Debussy’s Nocturnes, Chausson’s Poeme, Harbison’s Concerto for Oboe, Saint-Saens’ Concerto for Cello and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe: Suite No. 2. Commentary, provided by prominent conducter Benjamin Zander, will be woven into the concert itself. Zander has been featured on the BBC and CBS for his outstanding contributions in the arts and international relations. Featured musicians are Oboist Peggy Pearson and Cellist Rafael Popper-Keizer. Thursday, April 24, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $12-$51, 20% off for Harvard ID holders. Sanders Theatre, Memorial Hall, 45 Quincy St. (AAB)

CHANT WARS. Early music performers and scholars Benjamin Bagby and Katarina Livljanic will conduct a lecture-demonstration on April 21 co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard’s Department of Music and Learning From Performers at the Office for the Arts. In 1977, Bagby, a vocalist and harpist, co-founded Sequentia, an internationally acclaimed ensemble that combines vocal and instrumental virtuosity with innovative research and programming to reconstruct the living musical traditions of medieval Europe. Livljanic, a singer and musicologist, trained at the Zagreb Music Conservatory and directs Dialogos, a vocal ensemble specializing in medieval chant and liturgical theatre. The New Yorker proclaimed their concerts combine both “scholarly insight and dramatic verve.” Monday, April 21 at 7 p.m. Free. Harvard Divinity School, Andover Hall (second floor), 45 Francis Ave. (AAB)

TECHNOLOGY-INFUSED TUNES. Classical music is intertwined with technology when the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) showcases its unique stylings. The performances is a continuation of the series “Who’s afraid of technology?” and is hosted by Gil Rose, the conductor of BMOP. Wednesday, April 23 at 7 p.m. Ticekts $10. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., (617) 492-7679. (ESH)

visuals

JUST STAND THERE! The fourth program in an ongoing exhibition of video art for the MIT List Visual Arts Center’s Media Test Wall, Just Stand There! explores the idea that in many different arenas of life one must learn how to stay still. The artists utilize the structural concept of stillness and reactions to it in order to reflect on concerns internal and external to ourselves and our minds. The topics of the videos range from Cyclone, Coney Island’s archetypal rollercoaster, to a “Sesame Street”-like approach to teaching political philosophy. Through April 21. Free. MIT List Visual Arts center, Wiesner Building, E15-109, 20 Ames St., (617) 253-4400. (ABM)

GONESVILLE, or THE DISAPPEARING CITY. This exhibit in the Three Columns Gallery features photography by Martin Berenstein and sculpture by Christopher Frost. The collaborative installation explores the Boston neighborhood of Fort Point, which is rapidly disappearing due to gentrification and development, in two media photographs and wood. There will be an opening on Friday, April 11 at 6 p.m, followed by a talk and dinner at 6:30 p.m. Through April 27. Free. Three Columns Gallery, Mather House, 10 Cowperthwaite St. (ABM)

ALPHABETICS. This exhibit at the Amy Lowell Room in the Houghton Library features various historical artistic representations of different alphabets throughout the world. Works include a medival illustrated Bible, an early 18th century Russian alphabetic book and an early Latin translation of the Qu’ran. Through April 30. Amy Lowell Room, Houghton Library, (617) 495-2444. (MC)

THE COLOR YELLOW: BEAUFORD DELANEY. The exhibit, which is the first retrospective of an African-American artist at a Harvard University museum, is also Delaney’s first retrospective since he passed away in 1979. It features 26 highly textured, vibrant paintings by the underappreciated 20th-century African-American expatriate artist, most of which are dominated by warm, vivid shades of yellow. See full story in the Feb. 28 Arts section. Through May 4. Hours: Mondays through Saturdays, 10 to 5 p.m.; Sundays 1 to 5 p.m. Free. Sert Gallery, Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy St., (617) 495-9400. (CWP)

IMAGE AND EMPIRE: PICTURING INDIA DURING THE COLONIAL ERA. The exhibit features about 50 different works of art that capture different views of colonial India. The paintings, decorative objects, figurines, photographs and sketches not only document the colonial era (17th-20th centuries) in India, but also demonstrate the cross-pollination between British and Indian artistic traditions. See full story in the Feb. 7 Arts section. Through May 25. Hours: Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. $6.50, free for Harvard ID holders. Group rates available. Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway, (617) 495-9400 (CWP)

BUDDHIST ART: THE LATER TRADITION. This comprehensive exhibit at the Sackler of Buddhist art from China, Korea, Japan, Tibet and India spans more than a thousand years. Surveying the transmission of Buddhism throughout East Asia from the 10th through the 18th centuries, the exhibit feature 72 pieces, including scroll paintings, Buddhist “sutras” or sacred texts, Chinese censers and Tibetan bell handles. See full story in the Feb. 14 Arts section. Through Sept. 7. Hours: Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. $6.50, free for Harvard ID holders. Group rates available. Sackler Museum, 485 Broadway, (617) 495-9400. (CWP)

film

FIGHT CLUB. Film and Architecture, a student-run organization at the Graduate School of Design, screens Fight Club on Thursday as part of its series “Real/Reel: The Fashioning of Reality.” Edward Norton, Brad Pitt and Helena Bonham Carter star in this 1999 film based on the best-selling novel by Chuck Palahniuk that acts as a modern-day morality tale warning of the decay of society. It tells of one man’s (Norton) life full of single serving dinners, cheap furniture catalogs and self-help meetings for illnesses he doesn’t have. He finds salvation in his new friend Tyler Durden (Pitt) and the founding of a fight club that soon spins out of control. The screening is free, and popcorn and soda will be served. Thursday, April 24 at 7 p.m., Piper Auditorium, Graduate School of Design. (JJH)

For full descriptions of the movies listed below, please visit Happening online at www.thecrimson.com, under Arts.

HARVARD SQUARE LOEWS