The Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra will devote its 25th performance season to recognizing the achievements of two people who got their start in the Hill City, and also to spotlight the diverse talents of musical artists who continue to make Lynchburg their home. And for good measure, the LSO will bring back a world-class pianist who electrified concertgoers here in 2006.

Reaching far beyond its usual guest performers from the music world, the LSO will host NASA astronaut (and Lynchburg native) Leland Melvin on Sept. 6 as narrator for a work the orchestra performed during its very first concert in 1983 — Aaron Copland’s emotion-stirring A Lincoln Portrait, the great American composer’s soaring tribute to America’s 16th president.

Next on the calendar is “Get Down Tonight,” a tribute to Motown music of the 1960s and 1970s by the LSO’s longtime principal trumpeter, Bill Carroll, and his Motown band, BC Big Rhythm Sound, on Nov. 15.

A special Christmas event, produced by two top Lynchburg-based singers, one from the world of opera and one from popular music, is scheduled for Dec. 23. Marcia Jones Thom and Paddy Dougherty will collaborate on “Christmas and Candlelight,” an evening of favorite Yuletide music as a benefit for the LSO.

Lynchburg native Elizabeth Coulter Vonderheide, a product of the city schools’ string program and now associate principal second violin of the Norfolk-based Virginia Symphony Orchestra, will join the LSO on March 21 for a concert of favorite

Baroque era music featuring the LSO string section. Three longtime LSO members — concertmaster Ellen Habitzruther, principal second violinist Andrea Albers, and principal cellist Peter Worford will also be featured.

International pianist Leon Bates, who brought a Lynchburg audience springing to its feet in a Feb. 2006 performance with the LSO, will return in May 2009 for a pair of performances. On May 7, he’ll play an intimate solo recital of works by a cross section of American composers, and on May 10, he will join the orchestra for an all-Brahms event on Mother’s Day.

This past June, Bill Carroll and the BC Big Rhythm Sound played at “The Nostalgia Concert,” a fundraising concert-dance that featured music of the 1940s and 1950s. A near-sell-out audience had so much fun at the event, and the event was so successful as a fundraiser for the LSO, that it sparked a second similar event planned for June 15 – “The Nostalgia Concert 2.”

Season subscriptions for the last two orchestral concerts (March 21 and May 10) are $35.

Subscribers are entitled to discounts to the “Christmas and Candlelight” and “Leon Bates Presents American Originals,” for $65 for each concert instead of the single ticket price of $75 to those events.

Everyone can reserve their seats now for the “Get Down Tonight” Motown concert or "The Nostalgia Concert 2” concert for $20 per ticket.