BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Andris Nelsons returns to the podium and resumes his Shostakovich project with performances of the composer’s wartime Eighth Symphony. Also on the program: the US premiere of “Dixi’’ by Georgian composer Giya Kancheli, as well as Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini’’ with pianist Nikolai Lugansky. March 24-26, Symphony Hall. 617-266-1200, www.bso.org
NEW MUSIC To celebrate its 20th-anniversary season, Boston Modern Orchestra Project will give a free Jordan Hall performance (March 25) of David Del Tredici’s lush, expansive song cycle “Child Alice.’’ And the late electroacoustic music of the Italian avant-gardist Luigi Nono will be the focus of a special academic conference culminating in three all-Nono concerts, free and open to the public, at Tufts University (March 25-26), with performers to include Claire Chase (flute), Miranda Cuckson (violin), and Evan Ziporyn (clarinet). www.bmop.org, www.music .fas.harvard.edu/nonoconcert.html
CHAMBER MUSIC The Sarasa Chamber Ensemble performs Haydn’s “Seven Last Words of Christ’’ (March 25 and 26) in Acton and Cambridge. And the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts will present the veteran Ying Quartet (March 26) in an ambitious all-Beethoven program in Jordan Hall. www.sarasamusic.org, www.chinese performingarts.net JEREMY EICHLER
Jeremy Eichler can be reached at jeichler@globe.com
