Season tickets and Wartburg Community Symphony Association memberships are available for the orchestra’s 2019-20 season, which starts Saturday, Oct. 12.

The symphony, under the direction of Samuel Stapleton, will show there’s “No Place Like Home” when it takes the stage at 8 p.m. in Neumann Auditorium on the Wartburg College campus. An opening night reception will precede the concert in the auditorium foyer with refreshments and music by harpist Sheila Benson, a member of the orchestra and the WCSA board.

“We are excited to open our 67th concert season with a new director and a resolve to bring new energy to this community/college collaboration,” said Joanne Jones, co-president of the Wartburg Community Symphony Association.

The concert will open with Richard Wagner’s prelude to “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg,” a fan favorite that gives a nod to Wartburg’s own Meistersingers. Clarinetist Elizabeth Matera, a former member of The President’s Own Marine Band, will join the symphony for Mozart’s “Clarinet Concerto in A major.”

The retired Master Gunnery Sergeant joined The President’s Own United States Marine Band in October 1990 and stayed with the band through 2017. Matera performed with the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra at the White House, in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, and across the country during the band’s annual concert tour. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music education in 1988 from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in 1996 and D.M.A. in 2002 from the Catholic University of America. She now teaches clarinet at Pleasant Valley High School.

Rounding out the night will be Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” which he wrote following a summer spent in Spillville, Iowa.

“It’s a fantastic piece, and there is a really neat native touch to Iowa specifically, but also the U.S., from a great symphonist and European composer,” Stapleton said.

Memberships help the orchestra offer innovative programs, feature outstanding soloists, nurture student musicians, and enhance the cultural life of Waverly and the Cedar Valley. Prodigy ($150-$249), Virtuoso ($250-$499), Maestro ($500-$999) and Gold Baton ($1,000-$5,000) levels include a family package of up to two adult and two youth tickets for each concert.

Season tickets provide admission to all four concerts of the season. Cost is $46 per adult or $10 for K-12 youth. Individual tickets to each concert cost $17 for adults and $7 for K-12 youth. Admission is free for children under 5 and Wartburg College students with a student ID.

Symphony Association memberships and season tickets are available: • In advance by completing an online purchase or downloading a membership form at www.wartburg.edu/symphony. • In person at the Wartburg Ticket Office in Saemann Student Center. Hours are 10 a.m. to noon. Call 319-352-8691. • At the door on the night of the concert.

“We encourage everyone who appreciates the opportunity to support an orchestra here in our own community to consider purchasing a Symphony Association membership, which also provides admission to the concerts,” Jones said. “Our programs this year all focus on music with a community connection.”