Sunday Happenings

Music

-- The ubiquitous cellist Yo-Yo Ma will be lending his talents to the Boston Youth Symphony as they celebrate their 50th anniversary. Symphony Hall, 3:00 pm, $50 to $75. We gasped at the price, too, but 50th anniversaries don't happen every day.

-- DeVotchKa and Basia Bulat may not make sense to you as words, but trust us when we say that their equally strange-but-wonderful folk-rock will transport you--maybe even to the point of speaking in tongues. Paradise Rock Club, 969 Commonwealth Ave, 7:00pm. 18+, $19.50.

Old Men on the Block?

-- They're back. The New Kids on the Block will, uh, hang tough at the Tweeter Center as part of the Kiss concert. Prepare for grownups to start squealing like 11-year-old girls and tearing their hair out. Fifteen other performers include: Maroon 5, Wyclef Jean, Natasha Bedingfield, Sean Kingston, Sarah Bareilles, Flo Rida, and Jonas Bothers for the 11-year-olds to do age-appropriate squealing. Sold Out, of course.

MVP on the Block

--World Series MVP Mike Lowell will bring his buffness to the Estate tonight to celebrate the release of his new book, Deep Drive: A Long Journey to Finding the Champion Within. Estate, 1 Boylston Place, 7pm.

Anti-Violence March

-- According to Universal Hub, this hasn't got much publicity, but there will be a "Man Up for Liquarry Jefferson Accountability March" from Grove Hall to City Hall. Jefferson was the little boy who died after coming upon the gun his half-brother had stashed in the house. 11:00 am.

Art, Shopping

-- The open studios of this year's SoWa Art Walk (11 am-6 pm) happily overlap with the crafts, fashion, and produce of the South End Open Market (10 am-4 pm) on its opening weekend.

-- Believe it or not, Harvard's Fogg Museum is closing at the end of June for major renovations (and the connected Busch-Reisinger Museum will be probably be torn down altogether). Take one last look at the old layout for free today, and you'll also see the opening of the self-explanatory exhibit, "Renzo Piano's Art Museum for Harvard". Construction is set to begin in 2009 and may be completed in '13. Fogg Museum, 32 Quincy St, 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm, Free.

Rick Sawyer, Kerry Skemp, and C. Fernsebner contributed to this post.

Photo of DeVotchKa from their MySpace page.