Regional arts and entertainment events

Sunday

Chamber music Aaron Jay Kernis' Pulitzer Prize-winning String Quartet No. 2 is the centerpiece of a recital by the Jasper String Quartet. The program, also featuring works by Schubert and Beethoven, begins at 3 p.m. at the Trinity Center for Urban Life, 2212 Spruce St. Tickets are $18; $16 for seniors; $5 for students. Call 215-735-6999. . . . Violist Marka Stepper plays works by Milhaud, Rebecca Clarke, Martin Stepper, Gerald Finzi, and Hindemith in a concert in memory of harpist Karin Fuller Capanna. The program, with guests Jeffrey Uhlig, piano, and Inna Nedorezov, violin, starts at 3 p.m. at Settlement Music School's Curtis Branch, 416 Queen St. Admission is free. Call 215-320-2684. . . . The Spano-Coucheron-Rex Trio performs works by Chopin, Kodaly, and Beethoven at 8 p.m. at the Curtis Institute of Music's Field Concert Hall, 1726 Locust St. Admission is free. Call 215-893-5261.

Heavenly voice The granddaughter of a renowned Persian classical singer and daughter of an esteemed cantor in New York, Galeet Dardashti weaves together the traditions of her heritage and borrows texts from the Torah, Talmud, and Midrash for her dramatic, subtly rocking songs of spirit. She performs at 6:30 p.m. at the Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St. Tickets are $18 to $54. Call 215-266-1218.

Divergent art The performance-art showcase Atypical features artists who are very typical for its venue, the Painted Bride Art Center: dancer-

choreographer Olive Prince performing excerpts from her solo work; percussionist Francois Zayas playing world-beat arrangements of Billie Holiday tunes; and choreographer Shibani Patnaik performing 4,000-year-old East Indian dances. The program goes on at 7 p.m. at the Bride, 230 Vine St. Tickets are $10. Call 215-925-9914.

Monday

True greatness Long ossified as the Father of His Country (though he was that), George Washington gains new facets in Ron Chernow's new biography, Washington: A Life, which reveals the adventurousness, calculation, and nobility that made the man. Chernow discusses his work at 6:30 p.m. at the National Constitution Center, 525 Arch St. Admission is free; reservations are required. Call 215-409-6700.

Tuesday

Strange adventures Illustrator Charles Burns is also one of the country's best storytellers, as his classic tale of youth, Black Hole, showed. His new graphic novel, X'ed Out, mixes horror comics and Tintin in following a young man recovering from a head trauma who finds himself flipping though realities. Burns discusses his work on a double bill with the outstanding book-jacket designer and novelist Chip Kidd, whose new book Shazam!: The Golden Age of the World's Mightiest Mortal pays tribute to one of the most underrated of the classic superheroes, at 7:30 p.m. at the Free Library, 1901 Vine St. Admission is free. Call 215-567-4341.

Wednesday

Cloistered isle For his new film Cuba, director Marlin Darrah traveled from Havana to Santiago, documenting the nation's architecture, people, landscapes - and the 1950s American-made cars preserved out of love and necessity. The Geographical Society of Philadelphia screens the film at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy of Natural Sciences, 19th Street and the Parkway. Tickets are $15; $7.50 for students. Call 610-649-5220.

Thursday

Dance times two The season opener for the Pennsylvania Ballet features works by George Balanchine, Matthew Neenan, and Roland Petit. Performances are at the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets, at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. next Sunday. Tickets are $30 to $139. Call 215-893-1999. . . . The Paul Taylor Dance Company performs works by the legendary choreographer at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Theater, 3680 Walnut St., at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $24 to $48. Call 215-898-3900.

Ancient avant-garde Cambodia's

Khmer Arts Ensemble

performs choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro's

The Lives of Giants

, a reworking of a tale from the Cambodian

Ramayana

, fusing centuries-old traditions and modern dance to comment on the travails of her homeland. The show goes on at

Bryn Mawr College's

Goodhart Hall, 101 N. Merion Ave, Bryn Mawr, at 8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $20; $18 for seniors; $10 for students. Call 610-526-5210.

Days in the park When preservationist Rob Armstrong of the Fairmount Park Historic Resource Archive found a stack of films on the collection's shelves, he knew where to call: Secret Cinema. The found-film specialists recognized the trove as Fairmount Park Film Treasures - short films dating from the 1950s through the 1980s about Philadelphia's city park system - and arranged a public screening. Among the films are a 1960 homemade documentary about the Fairmount Park Guard, a private mounted patrol that ended in 1972; a Museum of Modern Art film made in 1955 about the Japanese House, which moved in 1957 to Fairmount Park; archival footage from 1962 about the installation of Heinz Warneke's sculpture, Cow Elephant and Calf, at the Philadelphia Zoo; and a 1981 short about the Wissahickon Valley. The films screen at the Ryerss Museum and Library, Burholme Park, 7370 Central Ave., at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $7. Call 215-685-0544.