By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Violinist Lara St. John opens the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra season Sept. 26-27.

The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra will celebrate 30 years of music-making next year with an impressive lineup of concerts, including violin phenom Lara St. John and the superb pianist Vladimir Feltsman.

"I think it's an exciting time for the orchestra," says music director Mischa Santora. "By definition, the size of the orchestra (about 32 players) and the venues we play in set us apart from any other group in town."

Santora says his programs try to shed new light on pieces that people have heard.

"It's more than, 'Let's have an overture, a concerto, an intermission and symphony.' I've tried to get away from that stereotyped kind of programming," he says.

St. John, who gained fame by posing for the cover of her first CD wearing nothing but her strategically placed violin, opens the season in September as soloist in Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Santora will pair that with Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, Pastorale.

Feltsman visits in October with J.S. Bach's D Minor Piano Concerto, which is programmed with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G Major, as well as a piece by Valentin Silvestrov (Ukraine's greatest living composer) and Bartok's Divertimento for Strings.

Cello prodigy Daniel Lee, 24, who won a 2001 Avery Fisher Career Grant, visits in November with Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations. Santora conducts Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite.

In February, up-and-coming young conductor Massimiliano Matesic (born in Italy to Croatian parents) will make his area debut as guest conductor, sharing the stage with Cincinnati pianist James Tocco in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482. The program also includes works by Faure, Revueltas and Beethoven.

The Chamber Orchestra's principal oboist, Christopher Philpotts, is soloist in the Strauss Oboe Concerto in March, in a program including the Sextet from Strauss' opera, Capriccio and Mozart's Symphony No. 39.

The orchestra will continue its collaboration with the Vocal Arts Ensemble, performing Haydn's The Creation for its season finale in April.

Enhancing the season, the Chamber Orchestra's edgy new Twentieth Century Classics Series, held in the Fifth Third Bank Theater at the Aronoff Center, will continue with two programs: a Stravinsky retrospective and an all-French evening of music by Ravel, Jolivet and Varese. The series, introduced this year, attracted a noticeably youngish crowd and sold out its two performances.

"That's a remarkable achievement at a time when most performing organizations are cutting back drastically," Santora says. "I'm proud that we're going against the current tendencies."

Of the season's 11 subscription concerts, three will be in the orchestra's longtime home in Memorial Hall, and three in Corbett Auditorium at the University of Cincinnati. The Chamber Orchestra will expand its Northern Kentucky University presence with five weekday concerts in Greaves Hall, NKU (up from four).

A "Pearl Ball" will hail the 30th anniversary on Oct. 22 at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati. Funds raised from the black tie dinner and auction will support the Chamber Orchestra's performances and educational programs.

Santora, who begins his fifth season as music director, says he's proud of what he and his musicians have accomplished together. "They are wonderful musicians, who are dedicated and passionate about music," he says. "I feel privileged to have a chance to put together these programs of pieces that are dear to me, and present them to a loyal audience."

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com