One of the many marvelous features of the Music Academy’s Summer Festival is the fluidity of its nomenclature.

Let us make a distinction, however, between the masterclasses that comprise the permanent skeleton of every festival — which never change their name or structure — and the various concerts, recitals and lectures that blossom out of festival central with blissful frequency.

The Music Academy has done considerable re-branding over the years. The virtuosos and veteran musicians who used to be known as the faculty are now generally referred to as “teaching artists;” and the series of chamber music concerts these worthies offer at regular intervals (known for a while as Tuesdays at 8) have been liberated from the anchor of occurring on a specific day of the week and are now mostly gathered under the rubric Celebrity Series.

Similarly, the academy students — the institution’s raison d’être, after all — are now known as fellows, and the series of concerts, which they curate and perform (formerly known as Picnic Concerts) have been split, through a somewhat arcane process of selection, into at least two series: the Salon Series, and Fellows Fridays.

The next concert in the Salon Series takes place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 24, in Lehmann Hall at Miraflores.

The fellows, Messiah Ahmed and Harin Kang, violins; Amelia Branch and Nico Valencia, violas; Amanda Chi and Matthew Wiest, cellos; Wynter G. McCray, double bass; Joanna Lau, flute; Yang Yu, oboe; Michael Miller, clarinet; Maggie Reneé, mezzo-soprano; and Po Han Chiu and Jerome de los Santos, pianos, will perform in the appropriate combinations:
 
The “Afro-Cuban Concerto (‘Afro’-‘Vocalise’-‘Danza’” (2001) by Valerie Coleman (born 1970); “Fünf Rückert-Lieder” (1901-02) by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), arranged by Stéphane Fromageot; and the “Piano Quintet in C minor for Violin, Viola, Cello, Double-Bass, and Piano” (1903) by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958). 

Coleman’s “Concerto” is one of those works one likes the first time one hears it, and likes better with each hearing. Those expecting a Desi Arnaz romp may have to recalibrate, but this takes care of itself pretty quickly. It is not, that is to say, a collection of Caribbean pop melodies, but a well-made, if lighthearted, classical composition.

In all, Mahler set 10 poems by Friederich Rückert, the five poems of the song cycle “Kindertotenlieder/Children’s Death Songs” (1905), and the five grouped and performed as “Rückert-Lieder” (1901-02).

Similar in mood and tone to the “Kindertotenlieder,” though not as creepy, the “Rückert-Lieder” are not a cycle, and are performed, all or some, in any order of the singer’s choosing. They are gorgeous.

The Vaughan Williams “Quintet,” which I confess I had not heard until I began researching this preview, is a lovely work (naturally, since Williams wrote it), but it is also quite unexpectedly exciting.

I kept being reminded of Elgar’s “Piano Quintet in A-minor” which, surprisingly, was written almost 20 years later. I guess the influence went both ways.

The next Fellows Friday concert happens at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 26 in Hahn Hall on the Miraflores Campus.

Fellows Jackson Allen, tenor; Chai Lee, harp; Ben Quarles, clarinet; Francisco Palomero, trumpet; Sol Park, piano; Paul Matthews, percussion/timpani; Dominik McDonald, percussion/timpani; Joanna Lau, flute; Naomi Aires, cello; Kristin Andlauer, horn; Filip Czarkowski, trumpet; Andrew Zaharis, tenor trombone; Zachary Litty, bass trombone; and Daniel Park, violin will perform the following:
 
“to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem for Flute, Bass Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Vibraphone, and Drums,” by Andy Akiho (born 1979); “Canticle V: ‘The Death of Saint Narcissus’ for tenor and harp” (1974) by Benjamin Britten (1913-76); and “Copperwave (2006), for brass quintet” by Joan Tower (born 1938).

In 2016, Akiho arranged “to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem” (as you have no doubt figured out, the capital letters spell “ALONE”) for eight percussion instruments, and it is that version I know best.

The same notes either way, but now that I have heard the original, I am astounded at how different they sound from each other.

Both are compelling, even intoxicating, but the percussion version is the one I prefer. The original is haunted by the ghost of Stockhausen, which I found rather off-putting. Others are welcome to disagree.

My antipathy to Benjamin Britten is a matter of record. As my mother used to say: “If you can’t say anything nice … ” So I won’t. But I have never heard a composition of his — save his “Sinfonia da Requiem” — that justified his Olympian stature.
 
Tower is a master composer, and “Copperwave” (a reference to the high copper content of all brass instruments) is a profound and commanding work.

In a far less sentimental way, it reminds me of one of my favorite contemporary works, Michael Tilson Thomas’ “Street Song,” which I first heard, played by a brass quintet at Hahn Hall in the midst of an Academy Summer Festival. It is rather like a tour around one of Italo Calvino’s “Invisible Cities.”

Each Salon Series event includes a pre-concert reception at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets to both the Salon Series and Fellow Fridays start at $45 (Community Access, when available, $10; young people ages 7-17 are admitted free when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult).

Tickets can be purchased in person at the Carsey Box Office, 1070 Fairway Road, Montecito, by phone at 805-969-8787, or online at www.musicacademy.org.