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Whether it's played in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center before an audience of 2,700 or the intimate setting of Wattenbarger Auditorium at Tennessee Tech University for a select audience from the Upper Cumberland, music expresses a power and majesty that translates across time and space.



"A symphony like Beethoven's 'Eroica' is as impressive and new today as it was when he wrote it," said conductor Dan Allcott, who is entering his sixth year as music director. "Alongside works of living composers, these are works of great and timeless ideas."



The subscription concert season of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra at Tennessee Tech University begins Sunday, Oct. 19, with a performance of works by Tchaikovsky and Liszt. Reserve season tickets by calling the symphony box office at 931-372-6088 or visiting the BSO's web site at www.bryansymphony.org to download a season ticket reservation form.



The traditional opening concert of the season, a free performance at Dogwood Park in mid-September, has been postponed while the current phase of renovations in the downtown location is underway.



The BSO's 46th season is all about great music, old and new, and Allcott has programmed the five subscription concerts to give the audience a unique experience. The first three concerts each contain a major symphony by a major composer -- Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Mozart -- while sharing the season with 20th- and 21st-century composers Francis Poulenc and JacobTV (the stage name of Dutch avant pop composer Jacob Ter Velduis).



"It's exciting that we get to enliven this music," said Allcott. "The Bach 'Orchestral Suite' on our March concert was written almost 300 years ago, but we're constantly recreating it. You can take a composition that was written in 1720 and use the same instruments and play on the same stage, and it's still going to sound and be perceived differently, because of context; we simply don't live in the same times as Bach did. In fact, I think we need this music more now than when it was first conceived."



Adding to the complexity of the concert experience is the programming itself; an American audience, for instance, has never heard JacobTV's "Rainbow Concerto," which is making its U.S. premiere in Wattenbarger Auditorium in November, alongside Beethoven's "Eroica" symphony.



"It's the place, time, context and audience that make it different," said Allcott. "There will never be a moment like that again, and every one of us in the room experience that moment together. That's why it's so important that people attend a live concert -- they have to come to a live concert to be a part of that moment."



This season, Allcott has programmed the final offering of Mozart's 1788 trilogy of symphonies, "Symphony No. 40 in g minor"; audiences heard the 41st and 39th during the past two seasons.



"The Mozart finishes the cycle of his last three great symphonies," said Allcott. "Part of what I program is an expression of where I am musically. Last year, I turned 40 years of age, and I felt I was personally ready for Mahler's 1st. The Tchaikovsky we're playing this year, the "Pathetique," is deeply emotional, a serious piece of music, and these are serious times."



Soloists this season include pianist Andreas Klein in October for a Lizst concerto, cellist Wesley Baldwin in November for the JacobTV concerto, and soprano Shana Blake Hill in April for Poulenc's Gloria" -- again, programming that spans centuries and styles. Tennessee Tech's own Diane Pulte and Wei Tsun Chang will also make solo appearances.



"Having this music here in Cookeville makes me very proud," said Allcott. "There's no more important place in the world to hear this music than in Wattenbarger Auditorium."



The Bryan Symphony Orchestra, a member of the League of American Orchestras, is the only professional symphony in a rural area of Tennessee. Its regular subscription season performances take place in Wattenbarger Auditorium, the concert hall of the Bryan Fine Arts Building on the campus of Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville.