Marin Alsop will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in works by American composers Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland and Mark O'Connor, January 31 at the Music Center at Strathmore and February 1-3 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

With more than 100 performers, elaborate costumes, sparkling scenery and two 30‐foot tall nutcrackers, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s popular Holiday Spectacular rivals the glitz and glamour of any New York City production.

Forty dancers from the Baltimore School for the Arts will join the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Act II of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker on Saturday, December 8 at 11:00 a.m. Conductor Andrew Grams and narrator Rheda Becker will lead this action‐packed performance.

Five private homes in the Laurelford neighborhood will be festively decorated during the Baltimore Symphony Associates’ “Symphony Homes for the Holidays” weekend Thursday, December 6 through Saturday, December 8, 2007.

Salviati and the Antique: Ancient Inspiration for Modern Glassmaking is the Walters’ upcoming ancient focus show, a display that rotates annually as part of the museum’s ancient art collection.

Scheduled to coincide with /Maps: Finding Our Place in the World/, this focus show will present images of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, at Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, on view from February 2 to July 27, 2008.

What makes maps so hypnotic? Is it the world of possibilities they offer as they take us on vicarious journeys? Perhaps their connection to a moment in history or their sometimes dazzling beauty?

Just as the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall celebrates its 25th anniversary in the 2007‐2008 season, acclaimed conductor Günther Herbig will celebrate an anniversary as well: 25 years as one of the most beloved guest conductors of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Led by Music Director Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra will perform two works by the Pulitzer Prize‐winning American composer Aaron Jay Kernis, November 29 and 30 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and December 1 at the Music Center at Strathmore. On the program are Kernis’ Newly Drawn Sky and his Holocaust commemorative work, Lament and Prayer, featuring violinist Timothy Fain in his debut appearance with the Orchestra.

Maestra Marin Alsop will lead the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Romantic and 20th‐century works, October 25, 26 and 28 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall and October 27 at the Music Center at Strathmore.

World‐renowned singer and pianist Michael Feinstein will join Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly and the BSO SuperPops for theirfirst performance of the 2007‐2008 season, November 1 at the Music Center at Strathmore and November 2‐4 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall.

The 2007-2008 Season is due to start soon, and what a season it will be! It sees some of the last performances for conductor Marin Alsop: at the end of 2007-2008 she is moving onto new pastures to continue her post as Music Director at Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.