SoNA’s Valentines Pops Concert set for Feb. 15

The most romantic concert in Symphony of Northwest Arkansas’ 2014 season is coming up this weekend.

Valentine’s Pops, a new show featuring an evening of love-inspired classical and operatic music along with “a dash of musical theatre thrown in for spice,” is set to be performed by the symphony on Saturday, Feb. 15 at Walton Arts Center.

The show, conducted by SoNA music director Paul Haas, will include works by Puccini, Mozart, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more – all centered on the theme of love and its pursuit.

In addition to SoNA’s world class instrumentalists, the show will also include a quartet of world-class vocal soloists including soprano Tami Petty, who made her Lincoln Center debut singing Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle with the Voices of Ascension at Alice Tully Hall in 2010; mezzo-soprano Sara Murphy, who debuted at the Ravinia Festival in 2013, earning critical acclaim for Britten’s Phaedra and Barber’s Dover Beach; Timothy Jones, acclaimed throughout Europe and the Americas as a leading bass-baritone of his generation; and Enrique Pina, the robust, lyric tenor who has been exciting audiences in Italy and Latin America with his burnished timbre, secure tone and exquisite phrasing.

“This concert has so many different kinds of music,” said Haas. “It’s glorious, and it’s all about love — in one form or another — including incredible examples of storytelling in orchestral, operatic and musical theater genres.”

Tickets range from $28-48, and can be purchased at sonamusic.org, or by calling the Walton Arts Center box office at 479-443-5600. Tickets for children age 7-17 are available for $5 each with the purchase of an adult ticket, and college student tickets are available for $10 each with a valid student ID.

For more information, including the full season concert lineup, visit sonamusic.org.