E-Mail This Article to a Friend Guided no more Guided By Voices call it quits, plus early Nutcracker news and more

GBV call it quits

Twenty-one years, a couple dozen albums, three or four box sets, and several gazillion beers into a career as the most prolific — and at times simply the best — mid-career indie-rock band of their era, Guided by Voices are being laid to rest by the band’s captain, former elementary-school teacher Robert Pollard. In practice, the effect on Pollard’s output is likely to be minimal — his Fading Captain series of solo, side-project, and pseudonymous releases (Lexo and the Leapers, Airport Five, Go Back Snowball) is nearing the 30 mark, with no sign of slowing. Just off the release of yet another solo album, Fiction Man (Rockathon), in May, Pollard is issuing the final GBV disc, Half Smiles of the Decomposed (Matador), on August 24. The band are taking a farewell lap on their "Electrifying Conclusion Tour," which kicks off September 9 at the Paradise, 967 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. Tickets are $20; call (617) 931-2000.

Nutcracker, already?

If you’re used to waiting until the leaves turn to get your tickets to Boston Ballet’s annual holiday tradition, The Nutcracker, be warned: it’s a whole new ball game this year. With The Nutcracker having been booted out of its long-time home at the 3600-seat Wang Theatre to make room for the local debut of the Rockettes’ Radio City Christmas Spectacular, the Ballet has decamped to the 1700-seat Colonial Theatre. Do the math and then revisit your high-school lessons about supply and demand. Opening "a new chapter" in local Nutcracker lore, this year’s edition, which runs November 26 through December 30, offers a few more new twists, including — by necessity — new sets to accommodate the scaled-down venue. (Broadway vet Walk Spangler did the honors.) Tickets to The Nutcracker, at $25 to $80, with VIP seats available for $100, went on sale last week; they’re available at the Colonial box office, 106 Boylston Street in the Theater District, or through Ticketmaster at (617) 931-ARTS. And for all you philistines, tickets, at $18.50 to $74.50, are also on sale for the Rockettes’ engagement, December 2 through 31; call (800) 447-7400.

Boston Early Music Festival

Fifteen years may not sound like a long time when you’re concerned with music made at least 300 years ago, but it’s certainly a landmark anniversary for the Boston Early Music Festival, which has established a national beachhead here in the period-music underground. To celebrate, the BEMF has lined up a top-notch series this fall, kicking off with soprano Emma Kirkby — as close as early-music has to a superstar — singing English consort songs with the viol consort Fretwork October 16 at Harvard University’s Paine Hall. On November 27, the Venice Baroque Orchestra debuts Andromeda liberata, a work that’s recently been attributed to Vivaldi. The Tallis Scholars return in "A Holiday Program of Renaissance Polyphony" December 11 at the Jesuit Urban Center (775 Harrison Street in the South End). And in collaboration with FleetBoston Celebrity Series, the BEMF presents the North American debut of Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin in "Music of the Italian and German Baroque" at Jordan Hall (30 Gainsborough Street in Boston) next May 13. Other shows include Montreal’s Ensemble Caprice (January 15 at the First Congregational Church in Harvard Square); tenor Jan Kobow and fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout (February 4 at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre); the Hilliard Ensemble (March 6 at St. Paul’s Church in Harvard Square); and Tragicomedia, with guest sopranos Nell Snaidas, Catherine Webster, and Laura Pudwell (March 19 at the First Congregational Church). Tickets to each event run $21 to $59; call (617) 424-7232, or visit www.bemf.org

Tanglewood Jazz

Since venerable booker Fred Taylor took it over several years ago, the annual Labor Day weekend Tanglewood Jazz Festival has become a destination for jazz fans. This year’s event gets kicked off Friday evening September 3 in Seiji Ozawa Hall by Brazilian jazz pianist and vocalist Eliane Elias with salsa-jazz innovator Eddie Palmieri and his La Perfecta II band. Saturday begins with an "all jazz" program from Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk dancer/choreographer Savion Glover with tap legend Jimmy Slyde; that’s followed by NPR Piano Jazz host Marian McPartland with guest Taylor Eigsti in a live taping of that show, and an evening performance by Harry Connick Jr. in his crooner mode with his 16-piece big band in the Koussevitzky Music Shed. On Sunday afternoon, Branford Marsalis and his supercharged quartet will headline a showcase for his Marsalis Music label that will also include Connick with his own quartet in the mode of non-singing piano player, the superb and idiosyncratic guitarist/vocalist bandleader Doug Wamble, and the great young Puerto Rican alto-saxophonist Miguel Zenon. That evening, jazz legend Dave Brubeck takes the stage of Seiji Ozawa Hall with his quartet and a 23-piece "symphonette" string section. Call (888) 266-1200.