The Curtis Symphony Orchestra and members of the Curtis Opera Theatre will open the 2023–24 season on October 22 at 7 p.m. at Verizon Hall, Kimmel Cultural Campus, with a tribute to composer Richard Strauss entitled ‘Spectacular Strauss.’

Curtis’ young musicians will showcase their talent, led by conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Micah Gleason. Nézet-Séguin holds the position of music director at the Metropolitan Opera and The Philadelphia Orchestra while also mentoring at the Curtis Institute of Music. Gleason has been a Rita E. Hauser Conducting Fellow at Curtis for two years.

The program opens with Strauss’s “Dance of the Seven Veils” from the opera “Salome.” Music from the operas “Ariadne auf Naxos” and “Der Rosenkavalier” are also on the program.

Closing the concert will be Strauss’s “An Alpine Symphony,” Op. 64, presented as a fifty-minute-long, uninterrupted movement. This piece is notable for its depiction of a mountain-climbing expedition and will feature a range of instruments, including the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ, in Verizon Hall.