MORE THAN JUST CONCERTS: This Live Music Meditation from last season is one way Princeton University Concerts strives to bring audiences closer to music and musicians. Several events are planned for this season.

In addition to its lineup of chamber music performances, Princeton University Concerts (PUC) also offers supplemental programs, many of which are free, designed to bring audiences closer to the season’s music and musicians.

These non-concert events, all of which fall under PUC’s “Beyond the Music” programming umbrella, include Live Music Meditations, the annual Late Night Chamber Jam, an At the Movies series at the Princeton Garden Theatre and the Princeton Public Library, and half-hour Warm Ups prior to performances on the Concert Classics series.

Live Music Meditations, a partnership with the University’s Office of Religious Life, offer the opportunity to immerse in world-class music with the focus and mindfulness that meditation allows. Participants engage in a meditation guided by Associate Dean Matthew Weiner before hearing a half hour of music performed by musicians on PUC’s series. A conversation about the experience among audience members and musicians follows.

The series begins Tuesday, October 22 with pianist Brad Mehldau. Next, on November 7, violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Jeremy Denk are scheduled. On February 6, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras appears; and the final event of the series is April 16, when the Dover String Quartet is scheduled.

All of the events are at Richardson Auditorium. Meditation instruction begins at 12 p.m. and the events begin at 12:30 p.m.

PUC also offers the annual Late Night Chamber Jam, this year on February 20 at 10 p.m. with the Calidore String Quartet. Amateur string players of all levels and ages are invited to join the quartet on the stage immediately following their performance on PUC’s Concert Classics series to sight read with them. This year’s Chamber Jam will focus on the string quartet and will be led by the inaugural winners of the M-Prize, the world’s largest chamber-music prize.

The series also includes films. At the Princeton Garden Theatre on Wednesday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m., Martha Graham: Dance on Film will be introduced by Professor Simon Morrison. Princeton Public Library screens Beethoven Lives Upstairs (film screening for kids) Saturday, February 1, at 3 p.m. Admission is free. The Garden Theatre shows Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times Monday, February 10, at 7:30 p.m.

These three films all relate to the programs and artists on PUC’s concert season. Martha Graham: Dance on Film includes footage of the choreographer’s original ballet Appalachian Spring, for which Aaron Copland wrote the music. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will perform this music during PUC’s season-opening concert on Thursday, October 10, at 8 p.m. The family movie Beethoven Lives Upstairs will be screened in tribute to composer Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th anniversary of birth, a theme throughout PUC’s 2019–2020 season. And Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Montero will engage in a post-screening conversation about Chaplin’s Modern Times before she improvises a film score to Chaplin’s The Immigrant as part of her concert program on the Performances Up Close series on Tuesday, February 11.

Visit princetonuniversityconcerts.org for more information.