Week's best classical : Accordo's season kickoff, SPCO's new composer-in-residence

A selection of St. Paul Chamber Orchestra wind and string players perform a recital this week created by Lembit Beecher, the SPCO's first composer-in-residence since the 1990s. The program is anchored by "Small Infinities," Beecher's recent string quartet. Prompted by Schubert's intimate late quartets, Beecher takes a selection of more mundane recollections from his own life — old cassette tapes, his brother practicing violin, playing video games — and uses them to create a series of "obsessive poems." Also featured are Schubert's "Quartettsatz" and Janacek's wind sextet "Mládí" ("Youth'). (7:30 p.m. Thu., Icehouse, Mpls.; 7 p.m. Fri., Capri Theater, Mpls.; 8 p.m. Sat. & 2 p.m. Sun., Sundin Music Hall, Hamline University, St. Paul; $15-$20, 651-291-1144 or thespco.org)

For 20 years, the Sphinx Competition has worked to identify America's finest young black and Latino string players. The competition's alumni orchestra — the Sphinx Virtuosi — tours annually. This year's program includes "Guardian of the Horizon," a newly commissioned concerto grosso for violin, cello and strings by award-winning Peruvian composer Jimmy López. Vaughan Williams' Concerto Grosso and Beethoven's Grosse Fuge are also featured, as is "Delights and Dances," a work for string quartet and string orchestra by American composer Michael Abels. (3 p.m. Sun., Ordway Concert Hall, St. Paul; $20-$35, 651-224-4222 or schubert.org)

Twin Cities choir the Singers celebrates Dominick Argento's 90th birthday with a performance of "I Hate and I Love," Argento's choral cycle based on poems by Catullus. Matthew Culloton also conducts Fine's "The Hour Glass," Britten's "Hymn to St. Cecilia" and a new work by St. Paul composer Benjamin Wegner. (7:30 p.m. Sat., Nativity of Our Lord Church, St. Paul; 3 p.m. Sun., First Lutheran Church, Columbia Heights; $21-$33, singersmca.org)

Accordo kicks off its 2017-18 schedule with a typically imaginative program. Mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala sings two pieces for voice and string quartet, while the group's elite chamber musicians play Samuel Barber's iconic "Dover Beach," the rarely heard "Il Tramonto" ("Sunset") by Respighi and Dvorák's Op. 97 String Quintet. (7:30 p.m. Mon., Plymouth Congregational Church, Mpls.; $21-$32.50, 651-292-3268 or schubert.org)

The marimba is a xylophone-like set of wooden bars struck with round-headed sticks, which make a pleasantly burbling, slightly otherworldly sound. Hear four marimbas at once in an all-American recital by the Heartland Marimba Quartet, featuring the premiere of  "Rivers of Rage," a "political commentary piece" by Matthew Coley. (2 p.m. Sun., Studio Z, St. Paul; $15, studiozstpaul.com)