The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia, under the baton of guest conductor Ken Lam, continues its 49th season on Saturday, February 10, 7:30pm, at Old Cabell Hall on the Grounds of the University of Virginia and Sunday, February 11, 3:30pm, at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center.

Ken Lam will conduct the orchestra at the invitation of Music Director Benjamin Rous. Lam is currently director of orchestral studies at The Tianjin Juilliard School and resident conductor of the Tianjin Juilliard Orchestra. He is artistic advisor of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and resident conductor of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina and serves as artistic director of Hong Kong Voices. Previously, he held posts with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (South Carolina), the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Chamber Orchestra.

The program opens with Claude Debussy’s impressionist masterpiece, Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun.

Nathaniel Lee, the orchestra’s Principal Trombonist and Lecturer in Trombone at the University of Virginia, is the soloist in Johann Georg Albrechtsberger’s Concerto for Alto Trombone and Orchestra. Albrechtsberger was one of Beethoven’s teachers and a friend of Haydn and Mozart. Because so few works for the trombone were composed during the classical period, this concerto has been embraced by the trombone community.

Hector Berlioz’s Symphonic fantastique is an orchestral tour de force, telling the story of a young artist shattered by unrequited love and his resulting opium-fueled hallucinations of obsession and despair.

The orchestra’s February concerts are underwritten in part by a legacy gift from the late Charlotte Owen. Nathaniel Lee’s appearance is made possible by the Davidson Guest Artist Fund. Major support has also been provided by the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, lead sponsor of the Charlottesville Symphony’s 2023-24 season.

Free parking is available in the UVA Central Grounds Parking Garage, located on Emmet Street South on Saturday nights and at Charlottesville High School’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Performing Arts Center on Sunday afternoons. The Charlottesville Free Trolley stops at McCormick Road near the UVA Amphitheater, in close proximity to Old Cabell Hall. Both venues are wheelchair accessible.

Tickets are $10-$46 for adults and $10 for students and currently can only be purchased online at www.artsboxoffice.edu. The UVA Arts Box Office will re-open for the spring semester at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, January 30. Tickets may be purchased there via phone, (434) 924-3376, 12:00-5:00pm, Tuesday through Friday, or in person during the same hours in the lobby of the UVA Drama Building located at 109 Culbreth Road.

All University of Virginia employees (faculty and staff of all UVA departments and professional schools) are entitled to a 20% discount on tickets to individual performances. This offer does not apply to subscriptions, the December Family Holiday Concerts, Pops at the Paramount or previously purchased tickets.