KOPATCHINSKAJA PLUS PROKOFIEV

"Touching, mesmerizing and slightly mad," is how the Times of London describes Moldovan-Austrian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. "Mad" because she is a maverick free thinker, unafraid to personalize the music that she plays, and make it seem rivetingly relevant in an era that too often prizes clinical exactitude in classical performances. Kopatchinskaja is an artistic partner at the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and returns for a string of season-opening concerts in which she solos in Prokofiev's Second Violin Concerto. A brace of symphonies by the teenage Mozart and Bizet bookend the program. (8 p.m. Fri. & Sat, 2 p.m. Sun.; Ordway Concert Hall, St. Paul; $15-$53, 651-291-1144 or thespco.org.)

'FOR THE BIRDS'

Until he had a motorcycle accident, Minnesota author Kevin Kling had never written poetry. Lying in a hospital bed dosed on morphine, he began imagining he heard bird calls, and wrote a series of poems about them. His friend Victor Zupanc composed music to match Kling's texts, creating "For the Birds," which Kling describes as inhabiting "a place that exists between dream and reality." St. Paul-based new music collective Zeitgeist stages three performances to launch its new recording of the piece, with Kevin Kling narrating. (7:30 p.m. Thu., Fri.; 1 p.m. Sat.; Studio Z, St. Paul; $10-$15, zeitgeistnewmusic.org.)

PORTLAND CELLO PROJECT

All the sounds you ever expected to hear from a cello, and many you didn't. That's what the Portland Cello Project has spent the past 10 years serving up to audiences, taking the cello into places where it has rarely if ever ventured previously, and playing music not normally associated with the instrument. The ensemble's fall tour program is titled "Cello, Metal, and All That Jazz," and with its reputation for genre-melting forays into everything from classical to hip-hop, this should be a crazy mash-up of an evening. (7:30 p.m. Wed., Cedar Cultural Center, Mpls.; $18-$20, 612-338-2674 or thecedar.org.)

TERRY BLAIN