Michael Zwiebach

William Bolcom, one of the indisputably great American composers is showing up in the Bay Area this week and the 72-year-old is not sparing himself, so you have several chances to check him out.

Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the music director of New Century Chamber Orchestra, has made it clear that she doesn’t want her orchestra pigeonholed. So when she signed up her pal William Bolcom to be the orchestra’s featured composer this year, she gave him the widest latitude possible in his commissioned piece.

Concerto Köln belongs to that rare breed of early-music bands that can make a beloved favorite sound remarkably fresh. Handel fans, for instance, may know them as the orchestra for Harmonia Mundi’s 1991 recording of Giulio Cesare with Jennifer Larmore and Barbara Schlick, still the pacesetter on that front.

If you grew up in the 1990s you probably know Duncan Sheik, the singer-songwriter who arrives this week to perform songs from his musical Whisper House with the San Francisco Symphony. His 1996 debut hit, Barely Breathing, about a stalled relationship, marries its catchy groove to an emotional honesty.

There are a lot of brilliant ideas out there about involving children in classical music, but San Francisco Chamber Orchestra can stake a claim for one of the most original: conducting paired with circus clowns.