Cecile Licad, who thrilled Tucson Symphony Orchestra performing Piano Concerto No. 2 by Camille Saint-Saens, will return to Tucson in the 2008/09 season. Ms. Licad will perform Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, one of the most popular and demanding piano concertos ever written, on a Classic Special program one night only, Saturday, February 7, 2009 at the Tucson Music Hall. The opening became available when Horacio Gutierrez had to withdraw from the TSO 2008/09 season.

Less than a year after he took the job of assistant conductor at the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, James Feddeck is getting a promotion. He will take on additional conducting duties in the 2008-09 season while music director and principal conductor David Loebel finishes his 10th and final year with Memphis Symphony Orchestra.

The Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra continues its Sounds of Summer Series with a program of music that places the bassoon, usually heard in a supportive role, right into the spotlight. Bassooner or Later takes place on Monday, June 30, 7:00 PM in the Margeson

The Portland Symphony Orchestra is delighted to announce that Robert Moody will conduct the four outdoor Independence Pops performances in Maine beginning June 30. An exhilarating summertime tradition in southern Maine not to be missed, the concerts will be held this year again at Shawnee Peak in Bridgton (June 30), Thomas Point Beach in Brunswick (July 1), Goodall Park in Sanford (July 2) and Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth (July 3). All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.

Summer officially kicks off with a nonstop evening of singing, dancing and celebrating at Opening Night at the Hollywood Bowl 2008, Friday, June 20, at 8:30 p.m. The high-energy benefit concert showcases the Ninth Annual Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame induction ceremony presenting performances from legendary music honorees Liza Minnelli, Sir James Galway and B.B. King.

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s summer calendar sees the musicians embark on a six city tour of Spain, present an eclectic three-concert festival in Glasgow.

Music lovers gather under the stars this weekend for the return of one of the area's most popular cultural events: the Charlotte Symphony's summer series of free outdoor concerts. The opening concerts will spotlight a player who usually stays stashed away near the rear of the stage, first-chair French horn player Frank Portone. When Portone steps out front, he'll leave his horn behind and show off his other musical gift – as a tenor.

The two pieces are so different that putting them together might seem a little nutty. Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto epitomizes the lyricism and sparkle that are Mendelssohn's trademark. Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" is a chorus-and-orchestra extravaganza that revels in music's primal forces.

The Philadelphia Orchestra brings free Neighborhood Concerts to Cabrini College in Radnor, PA (June 27, 7:00 p.m.), and to the Gordon Theater at Rutgers-Camden in Camden, NJ (July 25, 7:00 p.m.), as part of its annual series of outdoor Neighborhood Concerts. Location and details of the third concert in the series will be announced this summer.

To see a concert program with only two selections on it is a rare thing these days. The staple repertoire is usually divided into a sequence of concert piece, concerto, symphony. It's a programming formula that works…unless, of course, you have a piano concerto of such massive scale that it dwarfs most symphonies.

What do you get if you mix approximately equal parts of Tchaikovsky and Brahms? Why Rachmaninov, of course, and this composers Second Symphony was the major work on last night’s Ottawa Symphony Orchestra program in Southam Hall.

There was no thinking small at Saturday night's performance of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Symphony Chorus and the University Singers of the University of Memphis.