Coming up in Philly music: A week with no reindeer

December is the time for holiday concerts, and Philadelphia has some of the best. But you don’t have to spend the month listening to music that evokes lighted trees and happy wassailers. Philly music groups like the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Gamut Bach Ensemble, and Dolce Suono continue to present concerts that could decorate any season of the year.

Wu Man and the chamber orchestra

Would you like to hear a world-famous virtuoso play an ancient Chinese instrument? Wind music played by some of the leading wind players in America? Bach cantatas that have absolutely nothing to do with Christmas? You can treat yourself to all of them in one eight-day segment of the Philadelphia music calendar.

The Chinese virtuoso is Wu Man, the world’s leading exponent of the Chinese pipa, a lute-like instrument with a history that spans two thousand years. She’s the guest soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, in a program that opens with Mozart and concludes with three pieces that spotlight her instrument and the Chinese musical tradition. In the second half, she’ll present a solo interlude on the pipa and take the lead in a concerto for pipa and orchestra composed for her by American composer Lou Harrison. The premiere on the program will be "Mu Yan Gu-niang," a Chinese folk tune arranged for strings by the Chamber Orchestra’s conductor, Dirk Brossé.

This is the second concert in a season-long series devoted to “Migrations.” The first concert spotlighted African music. This one celebrates the global Asian migration with an international star who began her career in Hangzhou, China, and now lives in California.

Popular Bach

The Gamut Bach Ensemble is the creation of Koji Otsuki, who directs the Bach cantata program at the Marlboro Festival. Otsuki leads a period-instrument Bach group in Japan and a Philadelphia group that plays Bach on modern instruments. The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society added the Philadelphia branch of Otsuki’s group to its schedule three years ago, and it was so popular they’ve brought it back every year since.

This year, Otsuki has recruited some local period-instrument players for works that call for recorder players like Gwyn Roberts, the codirector of Tempesta di Mare. The selections include some of Bach’s most famous cantatas. The vocalists are all young singers in the first years of promising careers.

Winds of winter

Dolce Suono’s December program features music for wind quintets and other wind ensembles. The players in the Dolce Suono Power Wind Quintet include the principal oboe of the Baltimore Symphony; the principal bassoon and principal horn of the Metropolitan Opera; the principal clarinet of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia; and Dolce Suono’s live-wire founder, flutist Mimi Stillman. The winds will receive keyboard support, where it’s called for, from Dolce Suono’s regular pianist, the redoubtable Charles Abramovic.

When Dolce Suono has presented wind concerts in the past, I’ve been impressed with the liveliness and grace Stillman and her colleagues bring to the genre. This program includes two works that should bring out their best: Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s 1916 wind quintet and Poulenc’s sextet for piano and winds. The Nielsen is a work that’s been compared to Mozart’s best pieces. The Poulenc is permeated with the French composer’s talent for incorporating elements from jazz and ragtime.

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia will present ASIA: Mozart, Dvořák, and the Pipa on Sunday, December 9, at 2:30pm and on Monday, December 10, at 7:30pm at the Kimmel’s Perelman Theater (Broad and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia). Tickets ($39.10 to $78.50) are available online and at the door.

The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society will present The Gamut Bach Ensemble on Wednesday, December 12, at 7:30pm at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia. Tickets ($25) are available online and at the door.

The Dolce Suono Ensemble will present the DSE Power Wind Quintet on Sunday, December 16, at 3pm at Trinity Center for Urban Life (22nd and Spruce Streets, Philadelphia). Tickets ($10 to $30) are available online and at the door.