The coming week brings an ending and a new beginning for two popular music series at the Columbia Museum of Art. Charles Wadsworth is hosting the first concert of the last season of his chamber music series at the museum (as well as at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County in Camden). Meanwhile, the Baker and Baker concert series, one of the longest-running classical music offerings in the city, is getting a facelift and a new name: Art of Music.

Although Wadsworth is wrapping up his tour as host as well as his post of Spoleto Festival USA chamber music director the chamber series will continue. Edward Arron, who has been Wadsworth s assistant for the past two years, will take over though the series will keep the Wadsworth name. And the piano-playing charmer still might show up from time to time. Columbia has turned into a place we really love to go, said Wadsworth, who turns 80 in May.

Knowing Wadsworth s popularity, the museum has been careful how it spins the change. The brochure for the five-concert series doesn t say a thing about this being his last year. We ve been kicking around the wording and want to say he s retiring, but it s a delicate placement, said museum director Karen Brosius. I thought carefully about how to do this, Wadsworth said.

The Baker and Baker concert series, usually by local soloists and small ensembles, needed a better connection to the museum and an identity that set it apart from the dozens of other classical concerts that take place in the city each year. The museum has taken a series that was good but perhaps a little stale and brought it together with art to make something richer, said Steve Anastasion with the Baker and Baker real estate company and foundation that underwrites the series.