Dmitri Shostakovich and four other outstanding Russian composers will visit the University Saturday afternoon as part of a month-long tour of the United States, under the cultural exchange program of the State Department.

The delegation, which will arrive by plane from New York, Wednesday morning, will also be guest of the University Friday for a luncheon at the Harvard Club in Boston.

On Saturday, members of the Music Department will conduct the group on a tour of the music building and will answer questions about music at the University. John M. Ward, professor of Music and Chairman of the Department, hopes that the visitors will also be able to attend a special rehearsal of the Bach Society Orchestra Saturday.

Much of the musicians' five-day stay in the Boston area will be taken up by concerts and rehearsals. The composers will join in Boston Symphony Orchestra rehearsals Wednesday afternoon and most of Thursday. Some of their works will be performed in the BSO concerts Friday at 2.15 p.m. and Saturday at 8:30 p.m., at Symphony Hall.

The delegation will also attend the New England Conservatory's Symphony Orchestra concert Thursday evening in Jordan Hall.

Besides Shostakovich, who is acting as chairman, the Russian delegation includes composers Dmitri Kabalevsky, Tikhon Khrennikov, Konstantin Dankevich, Fikret Amirov, and music critic Boris Yarutovsky.