Birmingham Conservatoire's Adrian Boult Hall hosts two premieres this weekend, beginning tomorrow when the Conservatoire Symphony Orchestra is joined by the Maraca2 percussion duo for the first UK performance of the Goldrush Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra by Jacob ter Veldhuis.

Inspired by the 1948 film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the piece evokes the struggle to uncover gold, using heavy percussion to represent the machinery used in these prospecting expeditions, with the shimmering of chimes creating a visual image of gold dust. Tim Palmer and Jason Huxtable are the soloists in this piece which we are told "needs to be seen to be believed".

Conservatoire conductor-in-residence Lionel Friend conducts, his programme beginning with Weber's Der Freischutz Overture and ending with Dvorak's magnificently lyrical Symphony no.8 (7pm, free pre-concert talk with Jacob ter Veldhuis at 6.15pm, details on 0121 303 2323).

Then on Sunday the continually enterprising Central England Ensemble moves into the ABH for a concert dedicated to the memory of the much-loved horn-player, orchestral trainer and conductor Frank Downes, who died at the beginning of the year.

Anthony Bradbury conducts a programme largely American under its "Stars and Stripes" banner, with works by Leonard Bernstein (the effervescent Candide Overture and the atmospheric Symphonic Dances from West Side Story), Aaron Cop-land (the stirring Fanfare for the Common Man contrasting with the enigmatic Quiet City, and George Gershwin, whose sophisticated An American in Paris rounds off the evening.

But there is also an inclusion from this side of the pond, with the premiere of Culture Clash, commissioned from the SPNM from Conservatoire tutor Simon Lester, promising a heady mix of styles (7.30pm, details on 07734 256268).

A couple of miles down the Bristol Road to the city's other university music faculty at Birmingham University, the Barber Institute on Edgbaston Park Road is the venue on Wednesday for an attractive programme of 18th-century music bridging the rococo and classical styles. Violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk directs period-performance experts the Academy of Ancient Music in orchestral music by JS Bach's second son Carl Philipp Emanuel, Benda, Haydn and Mozart, including his formidable Adagio and Fugue in C minor (7.30pm, details on 0121 414 7333).

Handel enthusiasts will flock to Symphony Hall on Saturday, when the Birmingham Bach Choir gives a rare performance of Handel's oratorio Samson. Its comparative neglect is surprising, since it contains a generous proportion of effective choral numbers, and includes near its end the spectacular soprano aria "Let the bright seraphim", world-renowned since Kiri te Kanawa sang it at St Paul's Cathedral at the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales.

The BBC is joined by the English Chamber Orchestra and a fine array of soloists under the baton of Paul Spicer, and the occasion marks the formal launch of the choir's most recent recording (reviewed on this page), the grippingly communicative Easter Oratorio by Spicer himself (7.30pm).

Symphony Hall this week also sees a busy CBSO, beginning tonight with an exciting programme combining Bartok's showpiece Concerto for Orchestra, one of his most approachable pieces, with Beethoven's Symphony no. 7, rewarding on so many levels, from the foot-tapping (but not in this acoustic, please) to the cerebral. Jaap van Zweden conducts (7.30pm).

Then tomorrow night the CBSO joins the rat-pack for "Ol' Blue Eyes", a Frank Sinatra tribute featuring vocalist Gary Williams and conductor John Wilson (7.30pm).

On Tuesday Jaap van Zweden returns to the CBSO rostrum to conduct Dvorak's Scherzo Capriccioso, highlights from Prokofiev's vibrant ballet Romeo and Juliet, and Szymanowski's Violin Concerto no.1 with the exciting young soloist Nikolaj Znaider, whose marvellous recording of the Mendelssohn and Beethoven concertos is reviewed on this page (7.30pm).

And Wednesday sees the latest in the highly-popular series of CBSO matinees, when van Zweden revisits Beethoven Seven and repeats the Prokofiev (2.15pm, all Symphony Hall details on 0121 780 3333).

Finally, Royal Sutton Opera concludes its run of performances of Johann Strauss' intoxicating Die Fledermaus with stagings at Sutton Coldfield Town Hall tomorrow and Saturday (7.15pm, details on 0121 464 8990).