Nico Muhly

Fri., Aug. 22, 7 p.m., $20, all ages, with Sam Amidon and Doveman, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.

by Shaun Brady

Rock/Experimental/Classical

Fanatics like to tout their favorite thespians' abilities by claiming they can recite the phone book and make it interesting: Composer/keyboardist/blogger Nico Muhly has undertaken the musical equivalent with "Mothertongue," one of three works on his CD of the same name. The piece begins with a babbling cascade of voices, a waterfall reciting the alphabet. From the onrushing flow of verbiage emerges addresses, names, the states, gorgeous recitations that revel in their own meaningless beauty. A mere 27, Muhly has collaborated with everyone from Philip Glass to Björk to Rufus Wainwright — a résumé with little in common beyond eclecticism, though his own music seems to lend that list a unifying sense. Adding an indie-rock mentality to what would normally be confined to the lofty formality of the concert hall (if it could get in the door), Muhly is taking his combination of new-music concoctions and lit-student folk-ballad deconstruction to the road.

Fri., Aug. 22, 7 p.m., $20, all ages, with Sam Amidon and Doveman, First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St., 866-468-7619, r5productions.com.