Sunday Happenings

Cantatas

-- The Harvard University Choir performs Benjamin Britten's 1948 cantata St. Nicolas, his first piece written for amateur musicians. It's about the fourth century Bishop of Myra, not the jolly fat man in a flying sleigh, but the cantata has become a Christmas tradition. Another instance of unseasonable holiday cheer. The Brattle Street musicians accompany the singers. Memorial Church, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, 4 p.m. $10/$5/Free for Harvard students.

Percussion

-- The NEC Percussion Ensemble plays a wide range of material tonight, including Joan Huang's Orphan San Mao an interpretation of the story of San Mao, an orphan who came to represent the exploitation of the poor in pre-Communist China. Also on the program: music by Fred Lerdahl and Claude Debussy. Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 30 Gainsborough St., 7:30 p.m. Free.

Rock

-- The Milky Way's Sundaze series of free performances by little-known rock bands has been hit-or-miss. Tonight it hits. Pink Reason is a psychedelic band from Brooklyn that embellishes the fury of the Stooges with freaked out electronics and a lo-fi spaciness that might have come from mid-nineties New Zealand. Performing with JP stalwarts the Needy Visions, the Maine Coons, and Manners. Milky Way Lounge, 403 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, 9 p.m. Free.

Acoustic

-- Brett Dennen will bring his folky musical style to Club Passim tonight, but is asking attendees to bring more than just an appreciation for his tunes. Rock for a Remedy will be on hand for a food drive to benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank; those who bring three food items (or donate $3) will have a chance to win a special Dennen prize. Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge, 8 p.m.

Movies

-- It's The French Connection a decade later on the streets of L.A. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) is William Friedkin's spiritual sequel to his earlier masterpiece and stars Willem Dafoe as a murderous counterfeiter at the center of a scheme of reprisals and cover-ups that confuses the real with the imaginary and leaves moral niceties a muddle. Essential viewing from the middle of the Reagan years. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., 9:30 p.m. $9.50.

Victoria Welch contributed to this post.