One year after the Sept. 9, gala opening of Schermerhorn Symphony Center, the Nashville Symphony will introduce its 2007/08 concert season with contrasting performances featuring the Gala Organ Celebration on Saturday, September 8, at 8 p.m. and pop icon Elvis Costello on Sunday, September 9, at 7 p.m.

The much-anticipated debut of the Schermerhorn Symphony Center pipe organ, led by Music Advisor Leonard Slatkin, will feature organ soloist Andrew Risinger with the Nashville Symphony in a program that includes four preeminent organ works:  Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, Maurice Duruflé’s Prelude and Fugue on the Name ALAIN, Barber’s Toccata Festiva and Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3 in C minor “Organ.”

Made in San Francisco by Schoenstein & Co., this custom-build concert organ is comprised of 47 voices, 64 ranks and 3,568 pipes, every one of which will have been individually tuned in the in Laura Turner Concert Hall before this exciting inaugural performance.  The organ has been designed with a rich palette of tonal colors and will be well-suited for a wide range of music repertoire, particularly for orchestra and organ works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The full black-tie Gala event includes an elegant pre-concert reception for $195.  Concert tickets range from $35-$105 (plus convenience fee) but are extremely limited.  For more information, please call the Nashville Symphony box office at 615.687.6400.  The Organ Gala Celebration is made possible by the generous support of First Tennessee.

Singer/songwriter Elvis Costello will provide an exciting dimension to Nashville Symphony’s 2007/08 season-opening weekend as the Symphony, led by Resident Conductor Albert-George Schram, joins Costello in a debut collaborative performance.

On the first half of the program, the Nashville Symphony will perform the Suite from Costello’s first full-length orchestra composition, Il Sogno, which was based on an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The dance premiere took place at the Teatro Communale in Bologna in 2000, but it was The Brooklyn Philharmonic who premiered the concert-version of the ballet in 2004.  Il Sogno was subsequently recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas, for Deutsche Grammaphon and stayed at the top of Billboard’s Contemporary Classical chart for 14 weeks.

The second half of the program will include Costello with pianist Steve Nieve, bassist Paul Gill, percussionist Sam Bacco and the Nashville Symphony performing a selection of favorites ranging from “Alison,” and “She” to “Almost Blue,” and “God Give Me Strength.”

Tickets range from $45-$150 (plus convenience fee) and can be purchased by calling the Symphony Center box office at 615.687.6400 or by going online to www.nashvillesymphony.org. The Elvis Costello performance is made possible by the support of First Tennessee.