Highlights of the season include The Ultimate Beethoven Festival, an extraordinary undertaking described as a deeply powerful and moving orchestral experience. For the first time, Calgarians will have the rare opportunity to hear all nine of Beethoven's Symphonies in order, as he wrote them. Also, listeners will be treated to Beethoven's Complete Cello Sonatas in two special chamber music concerts presented in collaboration with the Mount Royal Conservatory's Wyatt Artist in Residence Concert Series in honour of Hal and Marnie Wyatt, taking place at Mount Royal College's Leacock Theatre. The Ultimate Beethoven Festival takes place over 10 days in November and includes a screening of the film Immortal Beloved and a lively discussion of Beethoven's life and work with celebrity guest artists.

Hear & Now - A New Music Festival will make its stunning debut with two world premieres, arresting soloists and innovative masterpieces from the 20th and 21st centuries. With pre-concert discussions hosted by renowned composer Rodney Sharman, this celebration of contemporary music will kick off with It's About Time, featuring the first appearance of Ammolite with Canadian pianist Heather Schmidt, and So Near and Yet So Far which debuts Allan Gordon Bell's Symphonies of Earth and Sky.
 
As leaders in the arts community, this season the CPO will collaborate with several other arts organizations to bring exceptional productions to the stage. In addition to being the resident Orchestra for both Alberta Ballet and the Calgary Opera, the CPO will partner with One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre in a concert featuring the CPO premiere of acclaimed composer Philip Glass' Low Symphony, a landmark work based on the album Low by David Bowie and Brian Eno.
 
In one of the season's most anticipated concerts, the CPO and Honens International Piano Competition celebrate Mendelssohn's 200th birthday with the North American Premiere of the romantic composer's Third Piano Concerto. Unfinished at Mendelssohn's death, the concerto has now been completed and reconstructed by Marcello Bufalini for exclusive performance by pianist Roberto Prosseda.
 
The CPO goes high-tech this season, adding more multi-media performances than ever before. From Middle Earth to the Jubilee Auditorium, the Lord of the Rings Symphony will make its spectacular debut on the Calgary stage. More than 200 musicians and singers will be accompanied by projections of storyboards and illustrations from the box-office smash hit trilogy, and guests are invited to dress in costume. Also celebrating Hollywood's best, Symphony on the Silver Screen will bring to life timeless movie scores from films like The Godfather, Casablanca and E.T. while their accompanying cinematic scenes play out on a huge motion picture screen. The multi-media experience will continue with Holst's classical masterpiece The Planets, featuring projected images from NASA's unmanned spacecraft and the Hubble telescope - and Video Games Live returns with a brand new show to wow the crowd with lasers, lights and live action.
 
For rock 'n roll enthusiasts, audience favorite Jeans 'n Classics join forces with the CPO to pay homage to the legendary Freddie Mercury in We Will Rock You: The Music of Queen. Songs like We Are The Champions and Bohemian Rhapsody become even more epic when performed with a 65-piece orchestra! Also with Jeans 'n Classics, the CPO salutes one of the most popular rock bands of this generation in Stairway to Heaven: The Music of Led Zeppelin, featuring hits like Dazed and Confused and Whole Lotta Love. CPO audiences have flocked to past Jeans 'n Classics shows like ABBAmania and Rocket Man, making these concerts swift sellouts.
 
The holiday season will offer traditional favorites including Handel's Messiah and Sing-Along Messiah, in which audience members become a part of the biggest choir in town. In Christmas with Natalie MacMaster, Cape Breton's Celtic fiddling virtuoso will light up the stage with her exuberant brand of down-home charm and fiery musicianship.
 
The CPO offers a variety of concert series to fit all musical tastes, from their signature series the Classics to their fun-loving POPS and this Season three Series appear with a fresh new look. The Serenade Series presents the soothing sounds of orchestral favorites such as Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Gloria!, Mozart & Company and Too Hot to Handel. The Destination Series offers a feast of thematic selections featuring some of the most popular pieces ever written. The Series includes the sultry Tango Nights, Carnival in Prague and An Evening in Vienna.
 
No Season at the CPO would be complete without its playful concerts geared for the young and the young at heart! The new Symphony Sundays for Kids offers four concerts that are visually rich, with puppets, actors, and inventive costuming that will keep even the busiest of imaginations entertained! The Seuss-like How the Gimquat Found Her Song will introduce us to a rare and silent bird that lives in hiding until she finds a magician who takes her on a search for the perfect song. In the award-winning Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a young boy discovers that the eccentric boarder living upstairs is actually Ludwig Van Beethoven who is busy composing his Ninth Symphony, one of his greatest works. The fun starts with the pre-show Musical Petting Zoo where children can meet CPO musicians and get up close and personal with the instruments.
 
With critically acclaimed Music Director Roberto Minczuk at the helm, the CPO continually grows in its reputation as being an Orchestra of world-class musicians in a world-class city. The 2008/2009 season lineup is varied and accessible with subscriptions starting at an affordable $99.
 
For the entire season schedule, please see list below or a downloadable PDF of the 08/09 brochure is available on our website. To inquire about Season Subscriptions, contact the CPO Box Office at 571-0849 or visit cpo-live.com 

The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra has been live in Calgary since 1955. Live with the world's leading artists. Live in a wonderful range of genres. Live for an average of five concerts a month. Live in Southern Alberta as one of North America's finest and most versatile orchestras. The CPO has been an integral part of our vibrant community for over fifty years and will continue to celebrate some of the world's greatest music presented in the CPO's own innovative style that will excite, entertain and inspire music lovers of all ages.

CPO 2008/2009 SEASON AT A GLANCE
 
SEPTEMBER 2008
 
Sept. 4                         A Taste of the CPO (FREE)
Sept. 12 & 13              Swing, Swing, Swing
Sept. 18 & 20              Tango Nights
Sept. 20 (10am)          The Bandoneón and the Big Bang
Sept. 24                       Lunch, Learn, and Live! (FREE)
Sept. 26 & 27              Pictures at an Exhibition
Sept. 28                       The Mysterious Maestro
 
OCTOBER 2008
 
Oct. 3 & 4                    Lord of the Rings Symphony
Oct. 9                          Mozart & Company
Oct. 17 & 18                Symphony on the Silver Screen
Oct. 31 & Nov.1          Fauré's Requiem
 
NOVEMBER 2008
 
Nov. 7                          East Meets West: The National Arts Centre Orchestra in Concert with the CPO
Nov. 12                        Lunch, Learn, and Live! (FREE)
Nov. 15 (10am)           The Art of Strings
Nov. 15                        Carnival in Prague
 
THE ULTIMATE BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL
 
Nov. 19                        Speaking of Beethoven
Nov. 20                        Symphony #1 and The Emporer
Nov. 21                        Symphony #2 and The Eroica
Nov. 22 & 24               Beethoven's Complete Cello Sonatas
Nov. 25                        Immortal Beloved Film Screening
Nov. 27                        Symphony #4 and The Fifth
Nov. 28                        Symphony #7 and The Pastoral
Nov. 29                        Ode to Joy: Symphony #8 and #9
 
DECEMBER 2008
 
Dec. 5 & 6                   Handel's Messiah
Dec. 7                         Sing-Along Messiah
Dec. 9                         Christmas with Natalie MacMaster
Dec. 12, 13                 A Traditional Christmas
 
JANUARY 2009
 
Jan. 9 & 10                  Salsa Explosion!
Jan. 14                        Lunch, Learn, and Live! (FREE)
Jan. 16 & 17                Glass Reflections: The Genius of Philip Glass
Jan. 18                        The Laughing Orchestra
Jan. 24 (10am)            Whimsical Woodwinds and the Heavenly Harp
Jan. 24                        An Evening in Vienna
Jan. 30                        Stairway to Heaven: The Music of Led Zeppelin
 
FEBRUARY 2009
 
Feb. 7                          Vivaldi's Gloria!
Feb. 13 & 14               Mozart in Love
Feb. 20 & 21               Rhapsody in Blue: The Best of George Gershwin
Feb. 27 & 28               The Planets
 
MARCH 2009
 
March 5                       Too Hot to Handel
March 6                       A Night at the Opera with The Canadian Tenors
March 13 & 14             The Andrew Lloyd Webber Experience
March 14(10am)         The Fantastic Fiddle
March 20 & 21             Strauss' Don Quixote
March 22                     How the Gimquat Found Her Song
March 26 & 28             Vivaldi's Four Seasons
 
APRIL 2009
 
Apr. 15                         Lunch, Learn & Live! (FREE)
Apr. 17 & 18                Mendelssohn's Elijah
Apr. 22                         Three Worms & An Orchestra: The Arrogant Worms in Concert
 
MAY 2009
 
May 2 (10am)              Boisterous Brass and the Glorious Guitar
May 2                           Fire and Ice: From Helsinki to Madrid
May 8 & 9                    We Will Rock You: The Music of Queen
May 10                         Beethoven Lives Upstairs
May 11                         Mendelssohn: The North American Premiere
May 15 & 16                Video Games Live 2.0
May 29 & 30                Shine: Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3
 
HEAR & NOW - A NEW MUSIC FESTIVAL
 
May 21                         It's About Time
May 22                         So Near and Yet So Far
 
JUNE 2009
 
June 3                         POPS in the Park
June 6                         Beethoven in the Badlands