Soumik Datta will be performing with BBC Singers at the Barbican

MUSIC in off-the-radar venues isn’t always comfortable but can be an adventure, and a welcome change from the predictability of concert halls. So there are a few things you might be interested to try this week, and one is at Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre pub in Hoe Street E17, where the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment are giving one of their Nightshift gigs on Oct 25. Expect robust accounts of Telemann, Purcell and Vivaldi – as they’ll need to be to compete with the noise of bar sales – and an otherwise chilled-out atmosphere. Tickets oae.co.uk

More sedate is a new series of piano recitals in Leighton House, Holland Park Road – the extraordinary former home and studio of the painter Frederick, Lord Leighton, which has just had a makeover and is looking even more fabulous than it did before. Called Discoveries, the series starts with the phenomenal prodigy that is Jacky Zhang: all of 14 years old and equipped to dazzle in music by Bach/Busoni and Chopin on Oct 25. Easily reached from north London by Overground to Olympia. www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/discoveries-new-series-piano-recitals

Another recent refurb is the Alexandra Palace where Crouch End Festival Chorus and orchestra have a concert on Oct 23. It’s a fair way from the sea but that’s the theme of the programme, with Elgar’s Sea Pictures sung by contralto Jess Dandy, and a new piece by composer Cassie To called Songs of the Reef that involves vivid recordings of marine life alongside the assembled instruments and voices. Wetsuits available. alexandrapalace.com/whats-on

• Not so adventurous in terms of place but certainly in terms of repertoire, the BBC Singers and assorted players are at the Guildhall School’s Milton Court on Oct 21 with a programme that combines Bach with Indian classical music – some of it traditional, some new. How everything fits together can only be intriguing. My guess is it will be like a glove. barbican.org.uk

And talking of garments, if you go to Wigmore Hall on the same night, Oct 21, you’ll find the place turned into a repository for discarded clothing. Not a jumble sale in aid of the new season, it’s actually a deeply serious art installation that signals the plight of refugees and relates to a new string quartet by Charlotte Bray called Ungrievable Lives. This is the UK premiere, given by the Castalian Quartet, and played alongside works by Britten and Sibelius. If you can’t be there in person, the performance will be livestreamed and stay on the Wigmore website for a while. wigmore-hall.org.uk

• Also at the Wigmore this week is a whole day of English Song on Oct 22, with four concerts that represent a sort of air-lift of the Ludlow Festival of English Song from its Shropshire home base into central London. Pianist Iain Burnside curates. Performers include Nicky Spence and Robert Murray. And there are some real collectors’ items in the programmes, including songs by Liza Lehmann, Rebecca Clarke and Judith Weir. wigmore-hall.org.uk

At the same time, the London Guitar Festival runs in Kings Place, spreading across the entire weekend, Oct 21-23, and featuring classical, flamenco, solo and ensemble, with masterclasses too, and an impressive amount of youthful talent. There’s so much going on, serious guitar enthusiasts might want to take a tent and sleeping bag. www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/london-guitar-festival/