SEPTEMBER

16 SEATTLE SYMPHONY Gala opening night with rock-star piano virtuoso Lang Lang.Benaroya Hall.

24 CULTURE MUSICAL CLUB Thirteen musicians from Zanzibar, to open Town Hall’s Global Rhythms series. Town Hall.

24 ORCHESTRA SEATTLE Beethoven’s piano-and- orchestra works with soloist Mark Salman.First Free Methodist Church, 3200 Third Ave. W., 206-682-5208, www.osscs.org. Also Oct. 15.

28 SEATTLE SYMPHONY The premiere of Bright Sheng’s Black Swan. Benaroya Hall. Ends Oct. 1.

30 DAVID RUSSELL Opening the Seattle Classic Guitar Society’s season.Benaroya Recital Hall, 206- 297-8788, www.seattleguitar.org.

30 BELLEVUE PHILHARMONIC Glinka, Prokofiev, Dvorak. Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. 6th, Bellevue, 425-455-4171, www.bellevuephil.org. Ends Oct. 1.

OCTOBER

1 CLARINETTISSIMO! An all-Mozart, all-clarinet celebration. PONCHO Concert Hall.

8 THE ESOTERICS Choral music is a little-known corner of Shostakovich’s output, probably because it’s some of his most unabashedly Socialist-Realist, appease-the-authorities work: film music or song- cycles like Ten poems to words by revolutionary poets. The Esoterics join in his centennial celebrations by unearthing it. Various venues, 206-935-7779, www.theesoterics.org. Ends Oct. 15.

10 BEAU QUARTET Scandinavian music by Sibelius, Nielsen, and—ABBA! Town Hall.

14 AUBURN SYMPHONY Mendelssohn, Wagner, and Mahler’s Fifth. Auburn Performing Arts Center, 700 E. Main St., Auburn, 253-939-8509, www.auburn symphony.org. Ends Oct. 15.

14 SEATTLE BAROQUE A new work for old instruments by Iranian composer Amir Koushkani. Benaroya Recital Hall, 206-322-3118, www.seattlebaroque.org. Ends Oct. 15.

14 SEATTLE OPERA Stephanie Blythe, a memorable Carmen and Fricka here, takes the title role in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers and goes off to rescue her kidnapped boyfriend and outsmart an amorous Bey. Chris Alexander, responsible for 2005’s splashy, crowd-pleasing Tales of Hoffmann, directs. McCaw Hall, Seattle Center, 206-389-7676, www.seattleopera.org. Ends Oct. 28.

15 OPUS 7 Kodaly’s Missa brevis. St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave., 206-782-2899, www.opus7.org.

15 PHILHARMONIA NORTHWEST Seattle composer David Lamb’s Song and Dance, plus Beethoven’s Seventh. St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, 4805 N.E. 45th St., 206-675-9727, www.philharmonianw.org.

17 THE KIROV ORCHESTRA Hot-blooded Valery Gergiev conducts Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (with soloist Alexander Toradze) and Shostakovich’s bleak, brutal Symphony No. 11. It’ll be explosive—but brace for a night of Schwarz-bashing audience chat: “Finally, a real orchestra. . . . ” Benaroya Hall.

17 GRIEG TRIO Piano trios by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and their namesake.Meany Hall, UW Campus, 206-543-4880, www.uwworldseries.org.

20 LAKE UNION CIVIC ORCHESTRA Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto, Bruckner’s Seventh. Town Hall, 206-343-LUCO, www.luco.org.

21 TUDOR CHOIR “Music for the Sistine Chapel.” Various venues, 206-323-9415, www.tudorchoir.org. Ends Oct. 22.

22 BARRY LIEBERMAN AND FRIENDS Chamber music from the ebullient bassist.Brechemin Auditorium.

22 SEATTLE PHILHARMONIC Strauss, Walton, Tenney, Bizet.Meany Hall, UW Campus, 206-528-6878, www.seattlephil.com.

23 MELIA WATRAS Music for viola, incorporating technology and theater. Meany Hall, UW Campus, 206-543-4880, www.music.washington.edu.

25 ALEXANDER KOBRIN Opening the UW President’s Piano Series.Meany Hall, UW Campus. 206-543-4880, www.uwworldseries.org.

27 GAMELAN PACIFICA A 25th anniversary concert. PONCHO Concert Hall. Ends Oct. 28.

29 DEMPSTER DIVE A high priest of the avant-garde trombone, a paterfamilias to Seattle new-music followers, a wunderkind still joyously, puckishly pushing musical boundaries: Stuart Dempster, with several colleagues, will take over Town Hall for a sonic circus to celebrate his 70th birthday. Town Hall.

29 SEATTLE CHAMBER PLAYERS Composers from their 2004 Baltic festival return with new works.Benaroya Hall, 206-286-5052, www.seattlechamberplayers.org.

30 SHAHAM/MORK/BRONFMAN Piano trios by Schubert and Tchaikovsky. Benaroya Hall.

NOVEMBER

2 SEATTLE SYMPHONY The premiere of John Harbison’s Double Bass Concerto. Benaroya Hall. Ends Nov. 5.

3 SIMPLE MEASURES Chamber music that’s “98% hoity-toity free.” See article, p. 27. Various venues, 206-283-6058, www.simplemeasures.org. Ends Nov. 7.

4 CAPPELLA ROMANA Tchaikovsky’s Divine Liturgy. Holy Rosary Church, 4139 42nd Ave. S.W., 503-236-8202, www.cappellaromana.org.

4 SEATTLE CHORAL COMPANY “Sing Tango!” opens their silver anniversary season. Various venues, 206-363-1100, www.seattlechoralcompany.org. Ends Nov. 5.

8 MUSIC OF REMEMBRANCE Music by Israeli composers.Benaroya Recital Hall, 206-365-7770, www.musicofremembrance.org.

8 UW OPERA An intriguing double bill about sin and redemption: Weill/Brecht’s 1933 The Seven Deadly Sins, in which two sisters take a trans- American road trip and encounter the enticements of the title, and Puccini’s Suor Angelica, about a nun with a past. Meany Hall, UW Campus, 206-543-4880, www.music.washington.edu. Ends Nov. 12.

15 GIDON KREMER Sure, he could have made a great living playing warhorse concertos everywhere, but he’s taken the chamber music path—either with his ensemble Kremerata Baltica or in recital, as here—seeking offbeat repertory (Busoni, Piazzolla). Benaroya Hall.

16 SEATTLE SYMPHONY John Williams’ Bassoon Concerto with soloist Seth Krimsky, arguably the SSO’s best player. Benaroya Hall. Ends Nov. 19.

19 LES BOREADES DE MONTREAL 17th-century Italian music from this quintet. Town Hall, 206-325-7066, www.earlymusicguild.org.

21 GARRICK OHLSSON Eats pianos for breakfast. Meany Hall, UW Campus, 206-543-4880, www.uwworldseries.org.

DECEMBER

2 SUSAN CHAN A recital to open UW’s East-West Piano Arts series.Brechemin Auditorium.

4 ONYX Piano trios by Mozart. Town Hall.

5 PACIFICA STRING QUARTET Mendelssohn, Smetana, Dutilleux.Meany Hall, UW Campus, 206-543-4880, www.uwworldseries.org.

venue addresses

Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., 206-215-4747, www.seattlesymphony.org.

Brechemin Auditorium, University of Washington School of Music, 206-685-8384, www.music.washington.edu.

PONCHO Concert Hall, Cornish College of the Arts, 710 E. Roy St., 206-726-5011, www.cornish.edu.

Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., 206-652-4255, www.townhallseattle.org.