A NEW SEASON: Princeton University Concerts launches its 2019/20 season October 18 with a program featuring sophomore percussionist Elijah Shina. Michael Pratt conducts.

The Princeton University Orchestra (PUO) launches its 122nd season on Friday and Saturday, October 18-19, at 7:30 p.m. in Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall.

The program features sophomore percussionist Elijah Shina, performing Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra, with which he won last year’s concerto competition as a first-year undergraduate student. This work will be paired with Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E Minor, Op. 98. The concert will be conducted by the orchestra’s director Michael Pratt, who shares:

“Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra brings in a stage full of percussion instruments of every stripe for a work that is a volcano of color and great rhythms,” said Pratt. “Brahms’ magnificent late life masterwork, also on the program, takes us to a completely different planet. It is a work of deep meditation that also carries heroic defiance. It feels fitting to begin our season with this life-affirming symphony.”

Tickets to this pair of concerts are $15 ($5 for students), available at music.princeton.edu or by calling (609) 258-9220.

The Princeton University Orchestra is made up of Princeton undergraduate student musicians. Now in its 122nd year, the orchestra plays a wide range of works by composers from the Classical period up through freshly composed works by Princeton composers.

The 2019-2020 season will also feature piano soloist Francine Kay, a new work by Princeton University graduate student composer Annika Socolofsky, and works by Anton Bruckner, Gustav Mahler, and others. For more information on the upcoming season and other Princeton University Department of Music events, visit music.princeton.edu.