Thursdays at 9 p.m. and Sundays at 10 p.m.

The lights dim, the audience hushes, the baton cuts through the air – and the music begins. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra concerts return to Georgia’s airwaves the first week of March.

Join us for 26 weeks of concerts from the orchestra’s 2008-2009 season, presenting performances by the star soloists, passionate conductors, and the consummate orchestral players of the ASO recorded at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center.

ASO music director Robert Spano and principal guest conductor Donald Runnicles lead more than half the concerts between them. Other guest conductors this season include Nicholas McGegan, Mei-Ann Chen and Itzhak Perlman. Visiting violinists include Robert McDuffie, Joshua Bell, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Gil Shaham. Emanuel Ax, Peter Serkin, Andre Watts and Marcus Roberts are some of the pianists to perform. In addition, you’ll hear the artistry of such soloists as percussionist Evelyn Glennie, baritone Gerald Finley and soprano Christine Brewer.

For established masterpieces on the menu, enjoy the all-Tchaikovsky and all-Strauss concerts, Mahler’s Sixth Symphony and liberal helpings of Brahms. As for newer, American works, be sure to catch John Adam’s opera Doctor Atomic, about the first test of a nuclear weapon at Los Alamos, and the world premiere of a symphony by Christopher Theofanidis. The renowned ASO Chorus sings forth in Haydn’s Creation and Mozart’s Requiem.

Host Sarah Zaslaw presents the music and speaks with the artists. Join us when the ASO is on GPB, Thursday evenings at its new time of 9 PM with a repeat broadcast Sunday nights at 10.