Bank of America will serve as Classics Series sponsor for the 2009-10 season as well.

Under the leadership of Music Director Christof Perick, the Charlotte Symphony’s 10-concert 2008-2009 Classics season promises to inspire and entertain, with programs featuring charismatic conductors, renowned guest performers and musical masterpieces.

“The Charlotte Symphony is an artistic and cultural cornerstone in our community,” said Charles Bowman, Charlotte and North Carolina president, Bank of America. “We are proud to sponsor the Classics series and look forward to welcoming talented guest artists to Charlotte for an exciting season.”

The orchestra continues the search for its next Music Director, welcoming four outstanding guest conductors to Charlotte in the new season. Conductors Andrew Grams, Thierry Fischer, Christopher Warren-Green and Rossen Milanov take the podium during the 2008-09 season to lead the musicians in works by Berlioz, Mussorgsky, Beethoven and Rachmaninov. World-renowned pianist Andre Watts performs Beethoven’s elegant Fourth Piano Concerto, while the young and gifted Ingrid Fliter brings grace and passion to Schumann’s beloved Piano Concerto in A Minor. Resident Conductor Alan Yamamoto explores American modernism in music by John Adams and George Gershwin. And Christof Perick conducts venerable touchstones of the orchestral repertoire, among them Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra. -- www.charlottesymphony.org