Performances will include Mozart's Overture from the Magic Flute, the Clarinet Concerto in A major, featuring clarinet virtuoso Jon Manasse, and the composer's final recitation, the Requiem. Performances will take place Thursday, October 11, at 7:30 p.m.; Friday, October 12, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, October 13, at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, October 14, at 2 p.m.

Mozart's valedictory Requiem had to be completed by a student, Franz Xaver Süssmayer. Despite criticism over the latter's work, no recent attempts to recreate an "original" version without Süssmayer's emendations have dethroned what has been the standard performing version for two-plus centuries. Mozart incorporates lessons learned from assiduous study of Bach and Handel, his two great Baroque predecessors, with intensely expressive sections that anticipate Romanticism.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the Overture to Die Zauberflöte but two days before the opera's premiere. Three portentous chords set the table, as it were, followed by a quiet and harmonically fluid section before launching into a stunning fugue. Mozart composed his Clarinet Concerto, K. 622, in the two months between the completion of Die Zauberflöte and his death on December 5, 1791. Rich in lyricism and radiating an inner beauty in all three movements, it remains the preeminent clarinet concerto of all time.

Soprano Harolyn Blackwell's performing career began on the Broadway stage; shortly after, she was selected as a finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She has performed with major opera companies and at festivals, including Lyric Opera of Chicago, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires; the Metropolitan, Miami, Netherlands, San Francisco and Seattle operas; Opéra de Nice, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Orchestra of New York; and the Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne, Mostly Mozart and Ravinia festivals. She has appeared with the Los Angeles, Naples, New York and Oslo philharmonics; The Philadelphia Orchestra; the Baltimore, Charlotte, Dallas, London, National and New Jersey symphony orchestras; the Memphis, Minnesota and Pittsburgh symphonies; the Cincinnati Pops; the NHK Symphony in Tokyo and L'Orchestre National de Lyon. Blackwell has received numerous awards and honors, including a grant to study with Renata Tebaldi and Carlo Bergonzi.

Mezzo-soprano Sally Burgess has appeared with the Bavarian State, English National, Metropolitan, Nantes, De Nederlandse, Scottish and Welsh National operas; the Opéra National de Paris, Bastille, Opera North; and opera houses in Berlin, Lausanne, Nancy, New Zealand, Portland, Strasbourg, Wiesbaden and Zurich. She has performed the role of Judith in Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle in Bordeaux, for English National Opera, Opera North, in Utah, Houston and, most recently, with Seattle Symphony in June 2007. Burgess has performed with all of the UK's leading orchestras, and in the U.S. and New Zealand. She was nominated for "Best Actress in a Musical" at the Olivier Awards. Her performances of Gershwin songs for the BBC London Proms and of On the Town and Cabaret at the Royal Festival Hall have further expanded her reputation as an artist of limitless repertoire.

For ten years, tenor Karl Dent performed with the late Robert Shaw. Under Shaw's direction, he debuted with New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall and appeared with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Dallas, Honolulu, Houston, St. Louis, San Diego and San Francisco, and with the National Symphony of Washington, D.C. Dent has appeared as soloist at the Tanglewood Music, Cincinnati May, Vail Valley, Stoney Brook Bach Aria, Round Top Early Music, New Texas and Victoria Bach festivals. He can be heard on the Telarc, Naxos and Clarion labels. He received the Grammy Award as principal soloist on the Best Choral Recording (1997) and Best Technical Recording (1990). Dent is Professor of Music and Voice Area Chair at Texas Tech University.

Bass-baritone Clayton Brainerd is an Portland, Oregon–born, award-winning vocalist who has appeared in Europe, New Zealand, Canada, North and South America, Korea and Japan with Seiji Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, Charles Dutoit, Zdenek Macal, Jeffery Tate, Jesús López-Cobos and Christophe von Dohnanyi. Brainerd's versatility encompasses not only the Wagnerian repertoire of Wotan and Gunther in The Ring and the title roles in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, but also many roles in the Italian and French operatic repertoire, including Scarpia in Tosca, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Villains in Hoffman, Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande and Méphistophélès in The Damnation of Faust. Brainerd is also in great demand as a concert artist throughout the world, singing a vast repertoire from the Baroque to modern. He was awarded the coveted Herald Angel Award from the Edinburgh Festival.

Jon Manasse is principal clarinetist of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. He has served as guest principal clarinetist of the New York Pops Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony and New Jersey, and St. Louis symphony orchestras. Manasse has been a guest clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic, and served as the principal clarinetist of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2003–2004. Manasse and his duo-partner pianist Jon Nakamatsu serve as Artistic Directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival. Manasse has given recitals at Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall; in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Osaka; and 14 tours of Japan and Southeast Asia. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Manasse won in the 36th International Competition for Clarinet in Munich and the International Clarinet Society Competition. Since 1995, he has been Associate Professor of Clarinet at the Eastman School of Music and recently joined the faculty of The Juilliard School.

In 2004, the Washington Post heralded Carolyn Kuan's Kennedy Center debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, noting, "It is exciting news when any young conductor makes a debut with a major ensemble…Kuan won her case." An advocate of new music, Kuan has served as Assistant Conductor for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music under Music Director Marin Alsop since 2003. Recently, she led four world premieres in Merkin Hall in New York for Music for Japan. She was an Artist-in-Residence at the New York City Ballet in 2004 and 2005, and joined Seattle Symphony as Assistant Conductor in September 2006. In 2003, Kuan became the first female to be awarded the Herbert von Karajan Conducting Fellowship by the Herbert von Karajan Centrum and American Austrian Foundation, which resulted in her residency at the 2004 Salzburg Festival. Kuan was named the first Taki Concordia Fellow in 2003 and has received awards from the Women's Philharmonic, the Conductors Guild, the Kate Neal Kinley Memorial Fellowship and the Susan W. Rose Fund for Music. -- www.seattlesymphony.org