The Washington University Chamber Orchestra — under the direction of Elizabeth Macdonald, director of strings in the music department — will launch the season with a performance at 8 p.m. Sept. 7 in the Umrath Hall Lounge.

The program will include Two Elegiac Melodies, op. 34, for string orchestra, by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg — a work performed at the fair — as well as Grieg's Holberg Suite. Also on the program are Johann Sebastian Bach's Solo Cantata Ich Habe Genug, with baritone Scott Levin; and a variety of musical selections performed by a new ensemble, the Washington University Cello Choir.

Also beginning that week will be the eighth annual Jazz at Holmes series, which gets under way with a performance by St. Louis saxophonist Freddie Washington, a popular mainstay of Gaslight Square clubs in the 1960s, from 8-10 p.m. Sept. 9 in Holmes Lounge.

Born St. Louis in 1937, Washington began playing tenor saxophone in eighth grade and was performing professionally by age 16.

After enlisting in the Navy in 1956, he attended its music school in Washington, D.C., but in 1959 returned to St. Louis, where he began long associations with John Chapman, the legendary pianist, and John Mixon, a bass player who recorded with Miles Davis.

Over the years, Washington has toured with Mongo Santamaria and performed with such notable musicians as Wilbur Ware, Emily Remler and Leon Thomas.

Subsequent Jazz at Holmes performances will feature guitarist Steve Schenkel and his quartet (Sept. 23); the Kevin Gianino Quartet (Oct. 14); the Vince Varvel Trio (Oct. 28); the Kyle Honeycutt Quartet (Nov. 4); The North End (Nov. 11); the Kara Baldus Quartet (Nov. 18); and Circle East (Dec. 2).

Both the chamber orchestra concert and Jazz at Holmes are free and open to the public. For more information, call Sue Taylor at 935-4841 or e-mail staylor@wustl.edu.