Anaphora: A trio arrangement of Stravinsky’s “A Soldier’s Tale” Suite highlights the fourth-season opener of this lively Chicago chamber group. Works by Liszt and Brian Baxter round out the program. 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Heaven Gallery, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave.; $10 donation; 773-342-4597, anaphoraensemble.com
Chicago Chamber Musicians: The city’s most celebrated chamber music collective begins its 25th anniversary season with a program of brass works by Dukas, Joan Tower, Richard Strauss and others, featuring the CCM Brass and the American Brass Quintet. 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Northwestern University, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston; and 7:30 p.m. Monday at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, 205 E. Randolph Drive; $25-$45; 312-225-5226, chicagochambermusic.org
Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Now in his second season as music director, Riccardo Muti opens the subscription series with the suite from his mentor Nino Rota’s score to the 1963 Visconti film “The Leopard.” Filling out the program will be Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and Jacques Ibert’s Flute Concerto, with Mathieu Dufour, the CSO’s principal flute, as soloist. 1:30 p.m. Friday, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; $25-$220; 312-294-3000, cso.org
Civic Orchestra of Chicago: The CSO’s training orchestra for young, pre-professional musicians launches its season of free orchestral and chamber music performances. Principal conductor Cliff Colnot leads Stravinsky’s “Firebird” Suite and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. 3 p.m. Sunday at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; free, tickets required; 312-294-3000, cso.org
Elgin Symphony Orchestra: The orchestra opens its 2011-12 Classics Series with an all-Russian program under guest conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn. His program holds Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo and Juliet” Overture-Fantasy and “1812 Overture,” Rachmaninoff’s symphonic poem “The Rock” and Glazunov’s Violin Concerto, with concertmaster Isabella Lippi as soloist. 1:30 p.m. Friday, 8 p.m. Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Sunday at Hemmens Cultural Center, 45 Symphony Way, Elgin; $24-$70; 847-888-4000, elginsymphony.org
Ensemble Dal Niente: This is the group’s eighth season of pumping cutting-edge energy into Chicago’s contemporary music life. Getting things under way for the year will be the local premiere of “Professor Bad Trip,” a multipart “psychedelic masterpiece” for instrumental ensembles and electronics by Fausto Romitelli, interspersed with new arrangements of vocal works by an avant-gardist of another era, Carlo Gesualdo. 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Mayne Stage, 1328 W. Morse Ave.; $20-$25; dalniente.com
Music in the Loft: The Euclid Quartet opens the season with works by Dvorak and resident composer Patrick Zimmerli. 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at 1017 W. Washington Blvd.; $25; 312-919-5030, musicintheloft.org
Orion Ensemble: This treasure of the Chicago chamber music scene opens its 19th season with “Spanish Flair,” a program of works by Catalan composers Gaspar Cassado and Enrique Granados, along with works by Aram Khachaturian and Igor Stravinsky. 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Nichols Concert Hall, Music Institute of Chicago, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston (repeated Oct. 5 in Chicago and Oct. 9 in Geneva); $26, $23 for seniors; 630-628-9591, orionensemble.org
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