Music, lectures and visual arts presentations are among the first-day offerings from the Palustris Festival that starts today and runs through Sunday.

Today's musical offerings kick off with the Sandhills Harmony Chorus presenting a musical concert, "As Long As I'm Singin'," featuring an all-female chorus singing in close harmony, eccentric characters, comic scenes and upbeat quartets performing light-hearted pop and variety tunes. It starts at 5 p.m. at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The cost is $5.

At 7 p.m., the Joshua Wolff Jazz Trio of Broadway takes center stage when it takes the stage at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in the Founders Hall. The cost for the performance is $20.

The musical performances are capped off when the Tin Men in Concert perform at the Poplar Knight Spot in Aberdeen, starting at 8:30 p.m. Tin Men is a trio of guitar, sousaphone and washboard. Cost is $23 at the door.

Lectures on tap for today include "The Jerusalem Windows of Marc Chagall," with Vivian R. Jacobson presenting a lecture and slide show at Temple Beth Shalom (Jackson Springs Road, Foxfire Village) at 4 p.m. There is no charge.

Another lecture of interest today "Reflected Glory" is at 6 p.m. at the Malcolm Blue Farm in Aberdeen. The lecture is a remembrance of Stonewall Jackson by his wife, Anna, who was a North Carolinian. The event includes a reading of letters written during the Civil War by Jackson.

Several exhibits in the visual arts category are starting today, with most of them running through the end of the festival. Included in the offerings are William Mangum Art and Ben Owen Pottery, Award-Winning Quilts of the Sandhills and Paintings for Palustris.