Tacoma's professional orchestra is selling tickets for a milestone season that opens with two American classics at the Pantages Theater on Saturday, Oct. 17.

Symphony Tacoma's 80th season begins with "Fanfare for Our Nation," a concert pairing Aaron Copland's "Appalachian Spring" with George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Guest conductor Maurice Cohn and pianist Terrence Wilson will lead the program. Tickets range from $22.95 to $95 and are available at patron.symphonytacoma.org.

The season also marks a transition. Music director Sarah Ioannides stepped down after 12 years at the end of the 2025-26 season, and the orchestra is searching for her permanent replacement. The 2026-27 lineup will feature guest conductors auditioning for the role, according to the symphony.

Cohn brings credentials to the podium. He is the music director of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, a two-time Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award recipient, and a former assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Wilson, a Juilliard-trained pianist from the Bronx, has performed with the National Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Symphony Tacoma itself. The Baltimore Sun has called him "one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years."

Beyond the opener, the season includes "Symphony on the Screen" on Saturday, Nov. 21, "Holiday Favorites" on Sunday, Dec. 6, and Handel's "Messiah" on Friday, Dec. 18. The Oct. 17 and Nov. 21 concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. Four Mini Maestros concerts for children ages 2-8 and their families are also scheduled for early 2027.

Founded in 1946 by 30 volunteer musicians from the University of Puget Sound, Symphony Tacoma now fields more than 80 professional musicians and a 70-voice volunteer chorus, performing for nearly 20,000 people across Pierce County each year. The orchestra has called the Pantages home for more than three decades.

With guest conductors rotating through the podium all season, Oct. 17 doubles as the start of an audition the whole audience gets to watch.