I am extremely excited to introduce Tales of the World, our 13th season. This one will sweep San Antonio audiences away with both the variety of musical genres and their world-class artistic quality.

As an Artistic Director I feel like a little girl in a candy store while creating a special treat for audiences. I traveled to artist showcases in New York and all the way to Puerto Rico in a quest to find the best musicians. We will be presenting a unique blend of cultures, literally from all parts of the globe, in a most unconventional and fun way.

We will start on October 3 with a daring mixture, Baroque Opera with Salsa Sauce. Our old friends from Houston, “Mercury Baroque,” open, presenting in costume, "La Serva Padrona" by Giovanni Pergolesi. The second half features National Endowment for the Arts award-winner, Edwin Colon Zayas, a master of the national instrument of Puerto Rico, the cuatro.  He performs with a group of very talented kids from Cayey, PR who I have personally auditioned and selected. They'll introduce us to the colorful world of salsa in this amazing performance.

Our December 12 concert, Arabian Nights, will group musicians from 5 countries together to perform a World Premier of a composition by San Antonio composer Jack Stamps. This concert will consist of short tales—musical pieces with a Middle Eastern flavor. The sounds of violin, viola, and cello will be augmented by those of the durbakeh (goblet drum) and riq (tambourine) from the Middle East, the West African djembe, and numerous frame drums from around the globe. This fusion of Western and Middle Eastern musical language is intended to spread the message that people of all religions and backgrounds can live together in peace and harmony.

On January 23, we will pair the Israeli Chamber Project with Lilya Zilberstein. The concert’s first half features master concert pianist Lilya Zilberstein, who will perform for us a selection of piano favorites, including Appasionata by Beethoven and Variations Brillantes by Chopin, prior to her appearance as a soloist with the San Antonio Symphony the following weekend. Then we are thrilled to introduce the Israeli Chamber Project to San Antonio audiences. This group brings together the finest young Israeli musicians from NYC and Tel Aviv to perform both classic and rarely heard chamber masterworks side-by-side with newly commissioned music by promising Israeli composers.

For February 20, "Nicholas Payton." This trumpeter was born into a musical family (he remembers sitting under the piano while his bassist father Walter rehearsed with his band). Having been mentored by two Crescent City jazz masters (Clyde Kerr Jr. at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Ellis Marsalis at the University of New Orleans), Payton leaped into the jazz fray when he emerged on the New York scene in the early 1990s. He impressed fellow New Orleans native and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director, Wynton Marsalis, and was a regular in the early years of programming there. Over the next several years, Payton continued to hone his craft working with such jazz legends as Doc Cheatham—on a Grammy Award-winning 1997 eponymous duo album—Hank Jones, Elvin Jones, Marcus Roberts, and Ray Brown. While his jazz journey has taken him down many roads—from heritage artist to electric experimenter—the 36-year-old trumpeter has arrived at a new plateau of jazz maturity in 2010. Payton says “The true staples of jazz for me—the hallmarks of the music throughout its history—are love songs and the element of dance. … I want to write and play music that speaks for me and means something to me, that I feel passionate about.” Because Payton's colleagues are involved, it will be great, and it's improvised music you'll only hear once. Be there or be square.

On May 8, we are coming back to my Russian roots with the “Tchaikovsky Birthday Bash” and we are going to splurge!!!!! Along with the soloists from the Houston Grand Opera singing arias, we are bringing back the dancers from Barynya, the popular Russian folk ensemble from New York. Tchaikovsky's ballets are also in these highly-trained dancers' repertoire. You remember Baryna from May 2, when their fascinating performance of traditional folk dances made them our favorite "Russian Souvenir."

We produce the hottest concerts in town! Hurry to buy your subscriptions! This 13th season promises to sell out !