Canberra’s music lovers can look forward to a heady offering of springtime fare, writes Arts in the City columnist HELEN MUSA.

Former CityNews Artist of the Year Fred Smith teams up with members of the Spooky Men’s Chorale for Urban Sea Shanties, billed as witty, moving and silly “thinking men’s drinking songs” and selected from their 2009 award-winning album of shanties. The Street Theatre, October 4. 

From Argentina With Love will see mezzo-soprano Maria Eugenia Nieva and guitarist Andrew Blanch bring Argentina’s folkloric roots to life in a mix of tonada, zamba, cueca and, naturally, tango. Wesley Music Centre, Forrest, September 28. 

Canberra Choral Society plans to celebrate spring by blending traditional Icelandic and Appalachian songs with contemporary choral works, exploring nature’s beauty and its connection to human life. Songs of Open Country, directed by Dan Walker with pianist Anthony Smith, Wesley Uniting Church, October 4.

The Alma Moodie Quartet will be back again, this time joined by Canberra pianist Edward “Teddy” Neeman, to play Haydn’s Emperor Quartet, Korngold’s Piano Quintet and piano works by Bach and Sutherland. Wesley Music Centre, October 4. 

Former Canberra soprano, Louise Keast, will be here to sing with the Opera Australia chorus at Canberra Theatre on October 9, then for a concert with Elizabeth Cooper and pianist Kathleen Loh. Love Through Many Lenses, All Saints Anglican Church, Ainslie, October 10. 

Beyond the concert halls, the ACT Multicultural Awards recently named Canberra Dragon Dance as winner of the Arts, Media and Culture Award. The group’s lion and dragon dances, paired with percussion, have been entertaining crowds at festivals, schools, nursing homes and community gatherings across the region.

Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin, written and performed by Marcel Cole, who is just back from a success with the show at the Edinburgh Fringe, is about the life story of one of the greatest physical comedians of all time. Smith’s Alternative, Civic, October 2.