LED by conductor, pianist, and composer Shen Yiwen, the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra (SZSO) will perform works by Rossini, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams, and Gy?rgy Ligeti this Friday, featuring several future stars who have won prizes at prestigious competitions. Opening the show will be Li Tianyou, a bassoon player currently studying with Guilhaume Santana at the Saar Conservatory of Music (HFM Saar) in Germany. Li and the orchestra will perform Rossini’s “Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra,” a rare orchestral piece composed during his late-middle period. The 16-minute work consists of three contrasting movements in diverse keys, with suitable opportunities for virtuoso display in the first and last movements. The program will include Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Op. 56,” which first premiered in 1873 by the Vienna Philharmonic, with the composer himself conducting. The variations begin with a stately melody that proceeds through eight rich reimaginings before an explosive return in its original form in the work’s grand finale. A personal favorite of Brahms, this piece is one of his most popular works with audiences too. Xiong Weimo, a student at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, will play the solo part of “Horn Concerto No. 2 in E-flat Major” by Strauss. Composed some 60 years after his first horn concerto, this second piece, in three movements including a rondo and finale, is reminiscent of its earlier sister work and seems like a nostalgic retrospect of youth. Hu Zhanshuo, the first-prize winner of the national wind and strings competition organized by Xinghai Conservatory of Music last year, will perform Williams’ “Concerto in F Minor for Bass Tuba and Orchestra,” the first-ever full concerto composed for this instrument and one of the composer’s most popular works. It is profoundly influenced by the numerous English folk songs which Williams studied throughout his life. The program also includes Ligeti’s 1951 compact four-movement “Romanian Concerto,” based in part on Romanian folk music. Like his compatriots Bartók and Kodály before him, Ligeti had a genuine interest in folk music. Shen, with a dual bachelor’s degree in composition and German studies from Bard College and its conservatory, and a master’s degree and doctorate from The Juilliard School in the U.S., currently teaches at The Tianjin Juilliard School. He has won multiple conducting and composing competitions, besides performing as a solo pianist alongside orchestras. Time: 8 p.m., May 10 Tickets: 50-880 yuan Booking: WeChat account “szyyt_piao” Venue: Shenzhen Concert Hall, Futian District (深圳音樂廳) Metro: Line 3 or 4 to Children’s Palace Station (少年宮站), Exit E (Li Dan) | 