Lou Kosma directs the Vermont Philharmonic Orchestra in a recent rehearsal at the Barre Opera House. Photo: Stefan Hard/Times Argus

Vermont Philharmonic 2005-2006 Music Director Louis Kosma conducts music of Carl Nielsen, Aaron Copland and 14-year-old Peter Asimov, and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Opus 11, with Asimov as soloist: Sunday, Oct. 9: Barre - Barre Opera House, 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16: Stowe - Stowe High School, 3:30 p.m. Brian Webb conducts the Christmas section of Handel's "Messiah": Friday, Dec. 9: Montpelier - St. Augustine's Church, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11: Barre - Barre Opera House, 3:30 p.m. Kosma conducts "Humor in Music" - music of Mozart, Kodaly and a concerto with the Jon Borowicz Scholarship winner: Sunday, Feb. 12: Barre - Barre Opera House, 3:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 19: Randolph - Chandler Music Hall, 3:30 p.m. Kosma conducts "At the Dance" - music of Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Copland and Khachaturian: Sunday, May 7: Barre - Barre Opera House, 3:30 p.m. Saturday, May 13: Duxbury - Harwood Union High School, 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15, $12 for seniors, $5 for students; call the Barre Opera House box office, (802) 476-8188. For more information, go online to: www.vermontphilharmonic.org.

The Vermont Philharmonic not only opens its 2005-2006 season Sunday at the Barre Opera House, but the orchestra will open a new chapter by taking its music on the road to towns in the region.

"We are stretching the orchestra," music director Louis Kosma explained. "We are featuring a young artist - I'm going to call him a young artist, not a student - on a regular concert series. The concert will also show this artist's ability to write something - even though he is at a young age.

"And it will start to define, possibly, a new sound with our brass section."

Vermont's oldest community orchestra will open its 46th season Sunday at 3:30 p.m. (beginning with a short talk by Kosma) at the Barre Opera House. Kosma will conduct music of Carl Nielsen, Aaron Copland and 14-year-old Peter Asimov, and Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in e minor, Opus 11, with Asimov as soloist.

Then the concert will be repeated on Sunday, Oct. 16, at 3:30 p.m., at Stowe High School.

The Vermont Philharmonic was founded in 1959 by the late Jon Borowicz, a music professor at Norwich University. Kosma, a bass player at New York's Metropolitan Opera, has been music director since 1999.

"The orchestra is making great strides in living up to its mission," Kosma said. "Its mission is being involved in the community, by involving more community members in the orchestra, and on the board - which is expanding - and trying to get out more into the community and do things.

"And this year, every Barre Opera house concert will be followed by one somewhere else," he said.

This season, Kosma will conduct three of the orchestra's four regular concerts at the Barre Opera House (Oct. 9, Feb. 12 and May 13), and the repeated performances in, respectively, Stowe, Randolph and Duxbury. Former Music Director Brian Webb will conduct the Philharmonic's annual performances of Handel's "Messiah," Friday, Dec. 9, at St. Augustine's Church in Montpelier, and Sunday, Dec. 11, at the Barre Opera House.

Kosma, who lives in New Jersey just outside of New York City, knew the young Asimov from shared family celebrations.

"I met him when he was a youngster just tinkling the piano keys at Thanksgiving dinners with the Asimov family," Kosma said. "He comes from a family of people who communicate through the written word, while he communicates through music." (Peter is grand-nephew to author Isaac Asimov.)

Peter, who was born on Oct. 31, 1991, attends the eighth grade at The Town School in New York City. More importantly, he is an honors student at the Preparatory Division of the Mannes College of Music.

"When (pianist) Wu Han and (cellist) David Finkel (of the Emerson Quartet) had him as one of two kids his age in their chamber music festival this summer in California, and he went over and worked with the Dohnanyi Quartet in Germany," Kosma said, "I figured this was a kid we should put up on our stage."

On April 28, Asimov performed the Chopin concerto with the Anchorage (Ala.) Civic Orchestra. In his review, Mike Dunham, critic of the Anchorage Daily News, wrote: "I wasn't the only one skeptical about whether such a young person could find the emotion in Chopin's deeply sensual music. Now I believe. Even more, he managed to do it in commendable cooperation with the orchestra."

This afternoon, Asimov will be visiting Union Elementary School in Montpelier to play for and talk to the students.

"Besides being a fine pianist, he loves baseball," Kosma added with a laugh.

Sunday's concert will open with Aaron Copland's popular "Fanfare for the Common Man" for brass and percussion.

"It will use the most brass on the program," Kosma said. "It's a very accessible piece, very uplifting, and I thought it was a good way to start off the season. And since the program doesn't have a lot of brass on it, I wanted to give them a workout."

The second work, a much more intimate one, is Asimov's "Wedding Quintet."

"It was written for his aunt's wedding in 2003," Kosma said. "At that time, he had been working on unusual combinations of instruments with his composition class. He came up with this combination of two flutes, French horn, viola and bass - it's very interesting."

The remaining scheduled composition is Carl Nielsen's "Little Suite for Strings," Opus 1.

"This is the piece that is going to stretch the string section," Kosma said. "It's very important because we've achieved some really amazing textures and sounds in rehearsal. I just hope we can present something very similar in the performance. It showed me some growth in what they can do - when demanded."

Kosma added with a grin that his concerts are usually not without surprises.

"And so the audience should be aware it might get a very special treat - but that's all I'm going to say."