It terrified me when I was 10, and it terrifies me now: Janet Leigh's gaping, water-ringed mouth and, most of all, that sonic avatar of a slashing knife, violins shrieking like maddened ravens in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. I shouldn't have seen that iconic scene so young, but I was a dutiful viewer of channel 13's Night at the Movies and its host, Stanley Kramer. By then equally steeped in Hollywood lore and alcohol, the great producer/director rightly declared the shower-stabbing sequence a perfect marriage of sound and image.

This weekend, the Seattle Symphony plays Bernard Herrmann's score live, synchronized to a giant projection of Psycho (Thurs–Sat Oct 29–31, Benaroya Hall, 7:30 pm, $17–$99). Adam Stern, an underrated conductor who champions neglected corners of the repertory with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, leads the band. I might be too creeped out to go.

Later this weekend, don't miss the Seattle Pianist Collective (Sun Nov 1, Seattle Asian Art Museum, 2 pm, $15/$10), which commingles pianists specializing in classical and contemporary composition with jazz and other improvised musicians. Dawn Clement, Julie Ives, Oksana Ezhokina, Peter Stevens, and Kelly Wyse perform music by Shostakovich, Arvo Pärt, and Ervin Schulhoff. The Michael Owcharuk Trio, Don Larson, and electronic-music maestro Rafael Anton Irisarri complement the bill with their own tributes to the Day of the Dead.

Another impressive collective has a new venue: Tuning the Air moves its regular Thursday performances (through Dec 17 except for Nov 26, Fremont Abbey, 7:45 pm, $10) upstairs to the resonant "Great Hall" of the Fremont Abbey. From a winning cover of "Kashmir" to pieces influenced by the classical guitar tradition, flamenco, and progressive rock, this surround-sound collective of guitarists immerses you in strums, chords, and melodies that tilt, rotate, and swirl.

The Earshot Jazz Festival continues (through Sun Nov 8, various venues, see www.earshot.org for details) with several must-see groups, notably the Jim Knapp Orchestra (Sat Oct 31, Poncho Hall at Cornish, 8 pm, $18) and the free-improvising trio of Frank Gratkowski, Wilbert de Joode, and Achim Kaufman (Mon Nov 2, Chapel Performance Space, 7:30 pm, $15).

Also, I moderate a preconcert discussion with Wayne Horvitz and Robin Holcomb, who present an evening of chamber music, including a new string quartet by Holcomb along with Horvitz's These Hills of Glory for string quartet and improviser (Wed Nov 4, Recital Hall at Benaroya, 7:30 pm, $19/$29). I treasure this pair as makers of "rural classical," music that embodies a sense of isolation that is neither urban nor existential yet remote and content with solitude. Together, Horvitz and Holcomb pry the notion of classical music just a tiny bit wider. recommended