Saratoga Orchestra of Whidbey Island is opening its eighth season with “Curtains Up!”

This concert is at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2, at South Whidbey High School in Langley.

The orchestra will be playing the overture from the “Barber of Seville,” by Gioachino Rossini, to open the concert.

The performance will close with “Symphony No. 7,” by Beethoven.

Between those pieces will be a piano soloist, Mark Salman, playing Felix Mendelssohn’s “Piano Concerto No. 1.”

Aside from the piano soloist, the concert will be unique because the conductor is new to the orchestra.

Anna Edwards, a teacher at Roosevelt High School in Seattle as well as the conductor for a professional orchestra in Seattle, joined the Saratoga Orchestra after a two-year search for the replacement of Lee Burns, the former conductor.

This concert will be Edwards’ first with the Saratoga Orchestra.

“It’s the island’s introduction to her,” said Rae Terpenning, the orchestra’s board president.

“She has some very exciting ideas involving the community.”

Another highlight of the concert is the addition of two violinists from the orchestra’s Talent Development program, “where outstanding instrumentalists audition to be able to play along in the orchestra with the professional musicians,” according to Terpenning.

Tickets for the show are $25 for adults and $20 for seniors or members of the military.

Students under 18 years old get in free, though students under 14 must be accompanied by an adult.

Tickets for the performance are available at Moonraker Books in Langley, Vino Amore in Freeland, bayleaf in Coupeville and Click Music in Oak Harbor, or at the door.

For information, visit the orchestra’s website or call 360-929-3045.