Classical: stage is set for a lively and varied year in music to suit all tastes.

The larger half of the current classical season plays out between January and June. For the Monterey Symphony, that includes five orchestral programs, four conducted by music director Max Bragado, and one with podium guest Marko Letonja. A set of three opening the weekend of Jan. 19 in Salinas, with subsequent performances in Carmel, features Daniel del Pino in Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F Minor together with Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Guest conductor Letonja’s program is opera-oriented, and features soprano Tracy Dahl Feb. 16-18. Bragado returns March 15-17 for Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with guitarist Angel Romero, plus Copland and Poulenc. April 19-21 serves up Rachmaninoff’s sprawling Second Symphony, and Joan Tower’s Clarinet Concerto of 1988. Finally, May 17-19, Debussy’s Nocturnes pairs with Mahler’s First Symphony. 624-8511 or montereysymphony.org.

• The Carmel Music Society returns violin wizard Gil Shaham to Sunset Center Jan 19. Pianist Michael Roll makes his Carmel debut on March 1, the American Brass Quintet on April 8, and last year’s CMS competition winner, pianist Elizabeth Schumann, on May 9. The Mozart Society presents violinist Ivan Zenaty on March 21 at Sunset, and the Altenberg Piano Trio on April 11 at All Saints Church in Carmel. Details for both series, 625-9938 or carmelmusic.org.

• Chamber Music Monterey Bay brings the award-winning Trio con Brio Copenhagen to Sunset on Feb. 15 in a program of Haydn, Ravel, Sorensen and Brahms. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center appears March 8 with rare quintets for woodwinds and piano by Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and trios by Francaix and Poulenc. On April 6, the ever-freshening Juilliard String Quartet returns to play Haydn, Shostakovich and Beethoven. 625-2212 or chambermusicmontereybay.org

• The CSU Monterey Bay’s World Theater season includes the acclaimed Kronos Quartet on March 20. Specialists in new music for string quartet, Kronos always means adventure at the highest level and a finger on the vibrant pulse of today’s new classical music. 582-4580 or csumb.edu/worldtheater.

• Performance Carmel, always at Sunset Center, stages two Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, HMS Pinafore and The Mikado, April 29 and 30, respectively, in the Carl Rosa Opera productions. Lovers of the operas of Donizetti and Rossini in the 19th century went gaga for the G&S spoofs in London, and these works remain hilariously entertaining. 620-2048 or sunsetcenter.org.

• Now celebrating its 15th season, John Anderson’s Ensemble Monterey continues its series Feb. 23 at Monterey Peninsula College with guest conductor and jazz-master Ray Brown in arrangements of Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins and George Gershwin, plus works of Alexander Glazunov and Alberto Williams.

• On April 26, at Monterey’s Golden State Theatre, Cheryl Anderson conducts, with guest choir Cantiamo!, in Grieg’s Peer Gynt plus works by Corigliano, Effinger and O’Regan. 333-1283 or ensemblemonterey.org.

• After a hiatus of 10 years, the Carmel Bach (and Beyond) Festival, July 19-Aug. 9, will reintroduce the piano, in concertos by Mozart and Beethoven. Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Brahms’ German Requiem stand as two pillars of a season that will offer all six of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos in a single evening. 624-2046 or bachfestival.org.