Three concert highlights of 2017 featured versatile musicians and visceral music with staying power.

From soaring classical virtuosi to down-low Delta blues to stomping Celtic jigs, ours is a richly varied palate of musical experiences, day after day, year after year.

Still, some shows that rise to the top. Here are three from 2017 that should not be forgotten.

Bela Fleck Sunset Center Theater 3/26

Many musicians achieve proficiency on their instrument(s). Some are recognized as master players. Still fewer are those who find a niche allowing them to do things no one’s done before. Think Coltrane and Miles’ horns; Hendrix and Zappa’s guitar solos.

Once a generation someone surfaces who completely redefines an instrument. This year brought us just such a prodigy, when Bela Fleck visited. No one ever imagined a banjo player would play straight-up jazz in a duo with Chick Corea, electro-bluegrass bop with his band The Flecktones, traditional bluegrass with his high-school buddies as an adult, classical symphonies, and world music with bassist Edgar Meyer and tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain. A telling stat: Fleck has been nominated in more musical categories than any instrumentalist in the history of the Grammys.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony Sunset Center Theater 7/22

The full Bach Festival Orchestra, Chorale, Chorus and four vocal soloists were required to prove why the Ninth and its exultant Ode to Joy remains one of the most powerfully compositions in the classical lexicon. That closing hymn simply creates joy in all who hear it. It’s life-changing, and on that particular Carmel evening it became visceral.

Yonder Mountain String Band Golden State Theatre 3/30

The string band is an instrumentation stemming from the traditional mountain music of Appalachia involving a minimum of fiddle, upright bass, mandolin, guitar and banjo. It’s usually strictly bluegrass, but this Colorado-based quintet turned that on its ear with a playlist including reggae and Lou Reed’s “Take A Walk On The Wild Side.” In August they gave a dominating performance opening for legendary guitarist Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers) near Denver.

Speaking of the Allmans, it would be remiss not to mention the late Gregg Allman’s final effort, Southern Blood. It’s been noted that there’s no greater artist’s portrait than works promulgated in anticipation of their own demise.

This is no exception, even if you’re not a fan. It’s a stirring testament to a life well-lived, from a man who never looked back, until right before the very end.