ABOVE: Outgoing Tucson Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Steven Moeckel will perform Beethoven's Violin Concerto to open the TSO season later this month. LEFT: In November, renowned Singapore violinist Ning Kam will perform with the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music and the TSO.

Kam photo courtesy of TSO; Moeckel photo by Kelly Presnell / Arizona Daily Star 2005; Illustration by Anne Kenady / Arizona Daily Star

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CLASSICAL MUSIC

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Tucson's 2008-09 classical music season will be a story of new beginnings:

• Linus Lerner takes the podium for the Southern Arizona Symphony.

Sad endings:

• Tucson Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Steven Moeckel leaves us for Phoenix.

Old friends:

• László Veres returns to the podium for the Arizona Symphonic Winds' and Tucson Pops Orchestra's twin parks seasons.

And milestones:

• Arizona Friends of Chamber Music turns 60.

• TSO celebrates season 80.

• Tucson Chamber Artists embarks on season five.

Mostly, this will be a season of can't-miss concerts — challenging repertoire, exciting guest turns and extraordinary musical events that will be talked about long after the concert hall lights go down. Here are just a few of the events that have captured our imagination:

TSO: Moeckel, who takes over as concertmaster of the Phoenix Symphony, will bid us farewell in the TSO season opener Sept. 25-26, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto. He returns for recitals with longtime accompanist and TSO colleague pianist Paula Fan Nov. 16 and Feb. 1.

• Italian pianist Fabio Bidini returns Jan. 8, 9 and 11 to play the Rach 3, two years after he joined the TSO for Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2.

• The orchestra will hold a late-season celebration of the release of its first commercial recording with a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" April 16, 17 and 19.

Tucson Chamber Artists: This fearless professional choir continues to impress with its challenging repertoire. This season it takes on Haydn's "The Creation" (Feb. 27, March 1) and will premiere a commissioned piece by Stephen Paulus in three performances March 27-29.

Tucson Chamber Orchestra: This 17-year-old professional chamber orchestra is flying without a pilot these days. Concertmaster Ellen Chamberlain, who also plays with the TSO, is sitting in the hot seat as interim music director while the orchestra searches for a replacement for orchestra founder and longtime conductor Enrique Lasansky, who resigned last spring. Orchestra officials say they will use guest conductors throughout the season, starting with the opener Oct. 12.

Civic Orchestra of Tucson: The 33-year-old volunteer ensemble presents the premiere of Joseph Schwantne's "Chasing Light" Feb. 14. It's the second installment in the Ford Made in America commissioning program, which is funded by the Civic Orchestra and a group of community orchestras nationwide.

Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra: Incoming music director Lerner can never be accused of easing in slowly. The conductor has programmed a challenging season of works that will test the estimable volunteer ensemble —Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4 opens the season Oct. 5, Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" is set for Nov. 23, and pianist Miroslava Panayotova will guest on Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 March 29.

Arizona Friends of Chamber Music: The group celebrates its 60th season, and we get the presents — the Prazak String Quartet Oct. 29; the long-awaited return of the Emerson String Quartet Dec. 3; and the Pacifica Quartet leading the lineup for the popular Winter Chamber Music Festival March 8-15.

The Friends also will be the first stop for Singapore violinist Ning Kam's official Arizona debuts. She will perform a recital of works that includes Stravinsky's "Suite Italienne" and Copland's Sonata for Violin and Piano on Nov. 16. On Nov. 20, 21 and 23 she will play a trio of concerts with the TSO, performing Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto before heading north for a pair of concerts with the Phoenix Symphony Nov. 28-29.

Chamber Music Plus Southwest: The Actors Equity Association has removed the Tucson-based group from its list of companies for which its members cannot work, paving the way for it to bring Armin Shimerman, Edward Herrmann and Michael Learned here to star in its Rhythms of Life series. The series kicks off Oct. 25 with John Schuck (who regularly guests on "Law & Order: SVU" and played the dentist in "M*A*S*H" — the show's theme song, "Suicide Is Painless," is a nod to that character) in "Maynard Dixon's Arizona," which examines the time the artist spent in Arizona sketching the untamed West.

Actors Equity warned its members in its June newsletter not to work for Chamber Music Plus Southwest because it was not affiliated with the union.

CMPS argued that it was not a theater group, therefore it was exempt from union requirements. Equity lifted its warning in July.

For a complete list of upcoming classical music events, see the Fall Performing Arts Preview that begins on Page E5.