The Cascade Symphony Orchestra (CSO) will open its 2024-25 season of six concerts at the Edmonds Center for the Arts (ECA) on Monday, Oct. 28, when it hosts its Poem of Ecstasy concert.

“We open our season with the overture to the heroic opera, Fidelio by Beethoven, followed by the charming Joyous Youth Suite by Eric Coates, and the mystic Poem of Ecstasy by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin,” said CSO Music Director Michael Miropolsky, who is entering his 23rd season as the orchestra’s conductor and music director.

The featured soloist will be pianist Leonardo Zhou, who has performed and won awards in the Pacific Northwest and around the world. The young musician was a soloist with the Cascade Symphony in 2022 when he was 12 years old. He will perform the virtuosic Saint-Saёns’ Piano Concerto No. 2.

Cascade Symphony’s tradition for the Christmas season will feature two identical Happy Holidays concerts on Sunday, Dec. 15 and Monday, Dec. 16. This event is performed twice to accommodate the especially large community demand.

“The holiday concerts are sure to be a blast,” Miropolsky said. “Along with your favorite Christmas carols, you will hear delights from Johann Strauss to John Williams. You might raise your eyebrows hearing Minors Alterations by David Lovrien, who called his medley Christmas through the Looking Glass. “Our concertmaster Christina Wu will indulge you with the gorgeous Meditation from the opera Thais by Jules Massenet, and the stormy Winter from Vivaldi’s Seasons.”

The new year will begin with Bartok and Chausson on Jan. 13. Seattle Symphony cellist Nathan Chan returns with the sensational Cello Concerto by Friedrich Guida, and the concert will conclude with the Symphony in B-flat major by the romantic French composer Ernest Chausson.

On March 10, the orchestra will present Rossini and Dvorak. The featured soloist will be clarinetist, Anders Peterson in a performance of the Clarinet Concerto No. 2 by Henrik Crusell, a Finnish composer who was a contemporary of Beethoven. The concert will include works by Rossini and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, along with Dvorak’s Symphony No. 4.

The final concert of the season, The Devil’s Violin, will be May 5, and will feature violinist Tokuji Miyasaka in the breathtaking Violin Concerto No. 1 by Paganini. The season will conclude with audience favorite, Capriccio Italien by Tchaikovsky.

Each of these concerts begins at 7:30 p.m.

Two additional concerts will be offered by the Cascade Symphony. Its annual Children’s Concert – Prokofiev’s classic Peter and the Wolf – will take place at 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 8, at the ECA. The orchestra also will perform its annual Chamber Ensemble Concert in early April, with details to be announced at a later date. These two shows are separate from the season ticket series.

Current season ticket holders can now renew their tickets in person or by mail at the ECA (410 4th Avenue North, Edmonds, WA 98020); or by telephone (425-275-9595). New season ticket orders may be purchased beginning July 1, and online ordering will be available at that time. Individual concert tickets will go on sale starting Aug. 1.

Additional information about the Cascade Symphony Orchestra, including individual 2024-25 season concert programs and featured soloists, will be available online at www.cascadesymphony.org.