J. TILLMAN As if his other band, last year’s indie-folk sensation Fleet Foxes, didn’t already break your heart with its spectral songs, Tillman is also a ruminative songwriter with six solo albums to his credit. Tillman, who plays drums for the Foxes, comes to town with a full band in support of his latest, “Year in the Kingdom.’’ 10 p.m. Nov. 15. $12. Middle East Upstairs. 617-876-4275. www.worldmusic.org
MILTON NASCIMENTO It’s an exceptional time to hear titans of Latin music at Berklee Performance Center this week, starting with Cuban salsa icon Issac Delgado tonight. Nascimento, one of the leading lights of Brazilian music since the 1960s as both singer and songwriter, has traversed a particularly diverse musical map, from samba, pop, and funk to his latest project, last year’s spare jazz-trio interpretations of bossa novas. 8 p.m. Nov. 15. $30-$47. Berklee Performance Center. 617-876-4275. www.worldmusic.org
JAMES REED
ERIC PERSON The versatile saxophonist, flutist, and composer has played with the likes of Chico Hamilton, McCoy Tyner, and the World Saxophone Quartet. This gig’s band includes pianist Dave Bryant, bassist Jef Charland, and drummer Chris Bowman. 8 p.m. Nov. 13. $10. Outpost 186, 186 1/2 Hampshire St. Cambridge. 617-876-0860, www.zeitgeist-outpost.org
THE WORLD OF FRED HO The Chinese-American baritone saxophonist, composer, activist, and bandleader, a Harvard grad (’79), has created his own genre, an organic fusion of adventurous jazz and traditional Chinese music. This concert with the Harvard Jazz Bands features the world premiere of “Take the Zen Train,’’ a piece in six movements for big band and dancers with choreography by Daniel Jáquez. 8 p.m. Nov. 14. $8-$10. Lowell Hall, Harvard University. www.fas.harvard.edu/ofa
LIFE IS A CABARET Four sparkling cabaret artists perform at this benefit for lung cancer research: Brian De Lorenzo, Hildy Grossman, Krisanthi Pappas, and Kathy St. George with musical direction by Timothy Evans. TV celebrity Joyce Kulhawik will emcee. 7:30 p.m. Nov. 17. $30-$500, The Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston. 617-933-8600, www.bostontheatrescene.com
KEVIN LOWENTHAL
BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA The Italian conductor Fabio Luisi makes his BSO debut with a program devoted to Honegger’s “Pastorale d’été,’’ Stravinsky’s “Petrushka’’ and Saint-Saens’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the young French soloist Lise de la Salle. Nov. 12 and 14, Symphony Hall, 617-266-1200, www.bso.org.
BOSTON MODERN ORCHESTRA PROJECT This adventurous new-music operation opens its Jordan Hall season with what should be an exhilaratingly clangorous program including Varese’s landmark “Ionisation,’’ the New England premiere of Lou Harrison’s “La Koro Sutro,’’ and a rare performance of George Antheil’s iconic “Ballet Mécanique.’’ 8 p.m. Nov. 13. Jordan Hall, 617-585-1260, www.bmop.org.
EMMANUEL MUSIC The Schoenberg-Haydn season continues with an inspired pairing: Schoenberg’s Prelude to the “Genesis Suite’’ and Haydn’s “Creation,’’ with John Harbison conducting. The Schoenberg work is his contribution to a collaborative piece from 1944, with the later movements by other composers featuring the text from the Biblical book of Genesis. Schoenberg’s wordless music precedes them all as a kind of introduction to creation. Who knew all this time: before there was heaven and earth, darkness and light, and all the rest of the world, there was, it turns out, 12-tone music. 8 p.m. Nov. 14. Emmanuel Church, 617-536-3356, www.emmanuelmusic.org.
JEREMY EICHLER 
