No matter how many other leisure-time options compete for our attention, there really is nothing to replace the connection that happens at a live performance. Fortunately for classical music lovers, local organizations are busting out a new season of enticing variety, from early music innovators to contemporary composers inspired by the findings of science.
Seattle Symphony opening night
Conductor Emeritus Ludovic Morlot returns to launch the orchestra’s new season with a lineup of shorter orchestral pieces. The program includes favorites by Villa-Lobos, Ravel and Copland, as well as “Fractal Isles” by Puerto Rican-born Angélica Negrón, whose “Color Shape Transmission” was one of the Symphony’s Sibelius-related commissions a couple of seasons ago. Star pianist Khatia Buniatishvili will also take the spotlight as the soloist in “Rhapsody in Blue,” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin’s history-making favorite.
Sept. 14; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; tickets from $60; 206-215-4747, seattlesymphony.org
“Fluid Dynamics”
Venturing far beyond Debussy’s “La Mer” — perhaps classical music’s most famous portrait of the sea — violinist Rachel Lee Priday, who also teaches at the University of Washington School of Music, combines music and science in this multimedia live performance premiere of her new project and album, “Fluid Dynamics.” Inspired by the research of oceanographer Georgy Manucharyan (also on the UW faculty), Priday commissioned six of today’s most interesting composers — including Gabriella Smith (now based in Seattle) and Kronos Quartet cellist Paul Wiancko — to respond to videos illustrating Manucharyan’s experiments tracking the physics of the ocean. Priday will be joined by pianist Cristina Valdés.
Oct. 8; Meany Hall, University of Washington, 4040 George Washington Lane N.E., Seattle; tickets from $20; 206-543-4880, st.news/fluid-dynamics
Beyond Baroque Festival
Early Music Seattle inaugurates its new series of Beyond Baroque festivals as part of a major rebranding initiative. The October festival is anchored around three concerts, beginning with a program by the Catalan-born viola da gamba virtuoso and visionary Jordi Savall and his Hespèrion XXI ensemble exploring the music of Monteverdi and his contemporaries (Oct. 10). The second concert features Carlos Núñez, the world’s leading player of the gaita (the bagpipes of his native Galicia), who will blend music of the Celtic nations in his remarkable arrangements (Oct. 12). Originally from Seattle, acclaimed violinist Rachell Ellen Wong returns with Twelfth Night, the New York-based early music group she co-founded with David Belkovski, to perform “The English Orpheus,” a program exploring the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque in England (Oct. 13).
Oct. 9-13; venues including Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., and Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; single tickets from $40, festival passes from $150; 206-325-7066, earlymusicseattle.org
“Jubilee”
Seattle Opera presents the world premiere of “Jubilee,” an opera celebrating the lives and impact of the Fisk Jubilee Singers by the writer and director Tazewell Thompson. Founded in 1871 to raise money to save their school, the historically Black Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., this a cappella ensemble braved enormous obstacles and won international acclaim — and in the process changed perceptions of the artistic significance of African American spirituals. Theater legend Thompson has crafted a libretto in which new arrangements of more than 40 spirituals tell this moving and uplifting story.
Oct. 12-26; McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; tickets from $35; 206-389-7676, seattleopera.org
“Orbit & Oracle”
The Esoterics kick off their 31st season with an invitation to become acquainted with the choral music of the German composer Michael Ostrzyga (born in 1975). The astronomy-themed program examines intersections among music, science and belief with a cycle of a cappella works devoted to the planets in our solar system. These will be intertwined with a new series commissioned by Esoterics founder and director Eric Banks depicting smaller bodies in the solar system such as moons and asteroids.
Oct. 19; Plymouth United Church of Christ, 1217 Sixth Ave., Seattle; from $20; 206-551-1379, theesoterics.org
Pauline Oliveros’ sound meditations
Emerald City Music’s relaxed, intimate presentation style is ideally suited to this portrait of the maverick American composer Pauline Oliveros (1932-2016). The internationally acclaimed cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir curates this chamber concert combining live performance and film with compositions that call for audience interaction — all aimed at enhancing the experience of “deep listening” that is at the heart of Oliveros’ musical philosophy of total immersion in the sonic environment.
Nov. 8; 415 On Westlake, 415 Westlake Ave. N., Seattle; $49-$69, $10 students; 206-250-5510, emeraldcitymusic.org
“Historical or Revival?”
The enterprising conductor Lorenzo Marasso devises insightful programs for the Seattle Chamber Orchestra, which he founded in 2021. They tend to explore a specific music-cultural theme, such as this concert focused on the harpsichord as it has changed through the ages — illustrated by contrasting the sounds of a historical instrument with one reconstructed in modern times as part of the revival of interest in the harpsichord.
Nov. 15; Plymouth United Church of Christ, 1217 Sixth Ave., Seattle; tickets from $15; seattlechamberorchestra.org