Missy Mazzoli plays the Barbican [Marylene May]

THE word “classical” has never been too useful as a definition for something that can’t easily be defined; and you realise how thin it’s wearing when you encounter a composer like Missy Mazzoli who exemplifies the new, exciting, maybe slightly scary kind of animal prowling the classical jungle these days.

American, born 1980, and a dynamic presence across the pond, she’s been called the 21st century’s “gatecrasher” of classical music, which about sums it up. She gets commissioned by the Met, has taught at Yale, but also plays keyboards in a band called Victoire. And this Sunday, Feb 25, she’s the subject of an entire day of concerts at the Barbican, in the latest of their Immersion projects.

Immersive is the word for something that starts 11am, finishes around 10pm, and incorporates concerts, talks and films. Those who stay the course will catch her Violin Concerto and a chamber opera based on Isabelle Eberhardt – the extraordinary 19th-century Swiss explorer/writer/mystic who dressed as a man, converted to Islam, lived recklessly in Algiers, survived an assignation attempt, and did it all by the age of 27 when she died in a flood.

No shortage of material there for theatre, and Mazzoli delivers it with the BBCSO and Singers. barbican.org.uk

• For more sung drama, go to Hackney Empire where English Touring Opera open their new spring production of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut: one night only, Feb 24. It’s staged by Jude Christian whose Titus Andronicus recently got rave reviews at Shakespeare’s Globe. englishtouringopera.org.uk

At Covent Garden, Tim Albery’s production of The Flying Dutchman runs Feb 29-Mar 16 with a cast led by Bryn Terfel as the doomed seafarer. roh.org.uk

Meanwhile at the Coliseum, ENO revive their old Simon McBurney production of Magic Flute on Feb 28. Given the company’s interesting new practice of handing out redundancy notices to the orchestra and chorus in mid-performance, you can only wonder what they’ll have in store for these poor musicians during Mozart’s sublime comedy – which runs to Mar 30. eno.org

• The big Rachmaninov anniversary year may be over, but it reminded us all of what a substantial composer he was (as opposed to just a sentimental late-romantic). And it’s significant that there’s more than ever of his work around on concert programmes – not least Feb 27 when the superb Birmingham-based choir Ex Cathedra come to St Martin in the Fields to sing his All-Night Vigil. Don’t take fright: it doesn’t actually last that long. And if it did you’d scarcely notice, thanks to music of transcendent and distracting beauty. stmartin-in-the-fields.org

• I’m always fascinated by what happens at the Razumovsky Academy, a small, chic concert venue hidden behind an apparently ordinary shopfront in Kensal Green. And on Feb 25 there’s a recital by one of today’s leading young pianists, Alim Beisembayev, who won the 2021 Leeds Competition. Programme: Scriabin, Ravel, and more Rachmaninov! razumovsky.co.uk

• Lastly, anyone who shares my love for Carl Nielsen will want to know that the Royal Academy of Music has a lunchtime concert, Feb 23, with his quirky 6th Symphony and Commotio (originally an organ work) arranged for chamber orchestra by the latterday Danish composer Hans Abrahamson – who conducts a student ensemble. ram.ac.uk