The N.C. Symphony's 2011-12 concert season opens on Thursday, Sept. 8, in Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall with a powerhouse orchestral program headlined by Mozart's "Requiem."

Other highlights include a complete live performance of "Carmina Burana" and the return of pianist Yuja Wang, one of the music world's most celebrated young talents and a performer who causes listeners to "re-examine whatever assumptions [they] may have had about how well the piano can actually be played," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Symphony's regular classical series in Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Fayetteville, New Bern, Southern Pines and Wilmington will also feature standout performances of Tchaikovsky's "Fifth Symphony," Strauss's "Also Sprach Zarathustra," also known as the theme to "2001: A Space Odyssey", Mahler's "Fourth Symphony," three colorful explorations of national music traditions and many more compositions counted among the finest and most challenging in classical music.

The orchestra also hosts world-renowned piano soloists Pascal Roge, Ignat Solzhenitsyn, Louis Lortie, Stephen Hough and Christina and Michelle Naughton, among many other guests, for the five-concert "Piano Icons" series. Presented in partnership with Fidelity Investments, the series showcases the breakthroughs of music's greatest piano virtuosos: Mozart, Liszt, Rachmaninoff and more. The concerts feature towering achievements in the piano repertoire, including Rachmaninoff's "Second Piano Concerto," alongside solo gems rarely heard live.

The popular pops series begins in Raleigh on Friday, Sept. 23, with a celebration of Leonard Bernstein's music narrated by his daughter, Jamie. The series includes an evening of Billy Joel's greatest hits, a visit from Art Garfunkel, and the concert "Holiday Pops: A Carolina Christmas," featuring the world premiere of Greensboro singer/songwriter Laurelyn Dossett's beautiful new work for orchestra, "The Gathering."

Also available are tickets to the Symphony's popular Friday matinee concert series, Friday Favorites, as well as the six performances that make up the NCS Kids Young People's Concerts, including "Beethoven Lives Upstairs," a Mozart-inspired twist on "Green Eggs and Ham" and the orchestra imitating the greatest musicians of the insect world in "Bug Songs."

Tickets can be purchased online at www.ncsymphony.org; by calling North Carolina Symphony Audience Services at (919) 733-2750 or toll free (877) 627-6724; or by visiting audience services in person at 3700 Glenwood Ave., Suite 130, in Raleigh.