By Caldwell Titcomb

September Highlight: New England Conservatory faculty pianist Hung-Kuan Chen offers a free recital.

September 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29: Free Wednesday afternoon concerts continue throughout the month. September 1: Pianist Benjamin Warsaw plays works by Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, and Warsaw himself. September 8: A further celebration of Schumann’s bicentenary brings a program of songs, with soprano Lisa Lynch, mezzo Carola Emrich-Fisher, tenor Jason Sabol, bass-baritone Matthew Wight, and pianist Juliet Cunningham. September 15: Pei-yeh Tsai, a recent winner in an international piano competition, will offer Albeniz, Haydn, Scriabin, and Carl Vine. September 22: Flutist James Winn and that fine pianist David Kopp offer works by Franz Schubert and Bohuslav Martinu. September 29: Flutist Liz Horowitz and pianist Harrison Kelton offer Bach, Chaminade, de la Guerre, and Sammartini. At Church of St. John the Evangelist, 35 Bowdoin Street (Beacon Hill), Boston, MA, 5:30 p.m.

September 12: Retired Boston Symphony flutist Fenwick Smith gives a free, annual September concert. This year’s event will be devoted entirely to a performance of the 90-minute “Crippled Symmetry” by Morton Feldman (1926-1987), played on several types of flute, accompanied by pianist Sara Bob and percussionist Aaron Trant on vibraphone, celesta, and glockenspiel. At Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 3 p.m.

September 16: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum kicks off its season with a concert entitled “Avant Gardner Left Coast.” Represented are the much-lauded John Adams, James Tenney, Lou Harrison, and Terry Riley’s notorious “In C.” At the Gardner Museum, 280 The Fenway, Boston, MA, 7 p.m.

September 19: The Boston Conservatory’s ensemble-in-residence Juventas, in collaboration with dance students, presents a program of new original works by Phivos Kollias, Noam Faingold, Andres Carrizo, Nicolas Tzortzis, Biran Mark, William Zuckerman, Peter Lane, and Juraj Kojs. At Seully Hall, fourth floor, 8 The Fenway, Boston, MA, 2 p.m.

Canceled September 21: New England Conservatory faculty pianist Hung-Kuan Chen offers a free recital in which the program includes Beethoven’s Sonata in E-flat Major (Op. 27, No. 1), Chopin’s Nocturnes in B Major and E Major (Op. 62, Nos. 1 and 2), Bartók’s “Out of Doors Suite,” Scriabin’s Sonata No. 5, and Liszt’s monumental B-Minor Sonata. At Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 8 p.m. Canceled

Composer Samuel Barber: In honor of his centennial, Boston University will present a free concert performance of Vanessa, his finest work for the stage (and a Pulitzer Prize winner).

September 26: The Boston Conservatory hosts a two-day Boston Harp Festival with performances, panels, and master classes. The event culminates with a splendid Sunday concert: Astor Piazzolla’s “The History of Tango,” performed by Ann Hobson Pilot, recently retired Boston Symphony harpist, and Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) violinist Lucia Lin; Schubert’s “Arpeggione Sonata” (written for the long-obsolete string instrument and piano), arranged for cello and harp by Ina Zdorovetchi and performed by the arranger and cellist Holgen Gjoni; Debussy’s Dances for Harp and Strings, played by Ms. Pilot’s BSO successor Jessica Zhou; and Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro, played by harpist Ursula Holliger with flutist Ona Jonaityte, clarinetist Rane Moore, and the three-year-old Arneis String Quartet. At Seully Hall, fourth floor, 8 The Fenway, Boston, MA, 8 p.m.

September 28: In honor of Samuel Barber’s centennial, Boston University is presenting a free concert performance of Vanessa, his finest work for the stage (and a Pulitzer Prize winner), with a libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti. In the title role is internationally active soprano Lauren Flanigan. William Lumpkin will conduct. At the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA, 8 p.m.

September 29: The New England Conservatory Philharmonia, the institution’s senior-most orchestra, presents its first concert of the year under Hugh Wolff, Director of Orchestras. He has chosen a dandy program: John Adams’s “Lollapalooza,” Beethoven’s too-little-played Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat (Op. 60), and Berlioz’s virtuosic “Symphonie Fantastique” (Op.14). At Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, 290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 8 p.m