September
Gershwin’s
‘Porgy and Bess’ Concert
Sept. 27-29
Symphony Hall
301 Mass. Ave., Boston
$30-$114, 888-266-1200
If you missed Diane Paulus’s Tony winning adaption of the musical last year, here’s another chance to hear the famous Ger-shwin score. The Boston Sym-phony Orchestra will play the opera’s folksy, jazz and blues inflected score.
‘Breakthroughs’
Sept. 28
Tsai Performance Center
685 Comm. Ave., Boston
$9-$30, 617-354-6910
The Boston Musica Viva ensemble’s first concert of the season, “Breakthroughs,” features guest vocalist mezzo-soprano Krista River in John Harbison’s “Mirabai Songs,” Peter Lieberson’s “Raising the Gaze” and Andy Vores’ “Umberhulk.”
October
The Royal Drummers and Dancers of Burundi
Oct. 12
Somerville Theatre
55 Davis Square, Somerville
$35, 617-876-4275
In Burundi, a small country in eastern Africa, drums are sacred, representing fertility and regeneration. Fittingly, the Royal Drummers and Dancers of Burundi have passed down their traditions and techniques from generation to generation for centuries. Today, the percussion group tours the world performing powerful, precise rhythms on waist-high drums that they leap over and balance on their heads.
Bach to Björk
Oct. 19
Museum of Fine Arts
465 Huntington Ave., Boston
$16-$25, 800-440-6975
Rising talents in the Boston String Players ensemble open their sixth season with a new strings, electronics and visual arrangement of Björk’s “Unravel.” The program also includes Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3.”
Chick Corea and Gary Burton
Oct. 21
Symphony Hall
301 Mass. Ave., Boston
$30-$75, 617-482-6661
Musical pioneers and four-decade collaborators Chick Corea and Gary Burton perform songs from their new album “Hot House.”
‘Hamlet’
Oct. 25-Nov. 3
Hope Central Church
85-87 Seaverns Ave., Jamaica Plain, $10, 617-524-3343
Boston Metro Opera will premiere a reinterpretation of the Shakespeare classic composed by David Edgar Walther. Check out the rest of the young company’s unconventional lineup for the season: Spoofy “The Good, The Bad, and The Opera” and technology examining “Internet Trilogy.” And no, we’re not affiliated with these guys.
November
‘Madama Butterfly’
Nov. 2-11
Citi Shubert Theatre
265 Tremont St., Boston
$30-$150, 617-542-6772
This devastating love story, a young Japanese geisha marries an American naval officer, is a classic. See it! Hear it! Know it!
Mozart Jupiter
Nov. 9-Nov. 11
Symphony Hall
301 Mass. Ave., Boston
$20-$84, 617-266-3605
“Jupiter,” or “Symphony No. 41,” was Mozart’s last. It’s a difficult composition to pull off for any orchestra — in the final movement five different melodies are played simultaneously. Bernard Labadie conducts.
‘Sunrise,’ ‘Triumph of Lightness’ and ‘Winter Dreams’
Nov. 11
NEC’s Jordan Hall
30 Gainsborough St., Boston
$33-$38, 617-923-6333
Cello soloist Sam Ou and the Boston Civic Symphony perform a world premiere by local composer Larry Bell.
‘The Pianist of Willesden Lane’
Nov. 23-Dec. 16
The Paramount Center
559 Washington St., Boston
$25-$69, 617-824-8400
American concert pianist Mona Golabek performs a tribute to her mother.