Tomas Svoboda (b. 1939), composer, performer and emeritus professor at Portland State U, has composed > 200 works, including 6 symphonies (performed by SF Symphony, and Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras), with > 50 works recorded. His compositional style often combines Slavic folk elements with complex meters and rhythms, creating an intense, vibrant effect. Overture of the Season, Op. 89, his best-known work, opens in a celebratory, ebullient spirit, becomes goofily happy, quiets briefly before the celebration resumes first distant, then upon us. Svoboda writes of The Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra, J: Op. 148, “My approach to this work is to expose the beauty of the marimba. The gentle and majestic sounds . . . within the orchestra is always respectful of the somewhat limited powers of projection of the solo instrument. Overall the concerto is stylistically lyrical and neo-romantic.” 1st mvmt: A county lad visits the dizzying and the quiet streets of New York. 2nd mvmt: Pensive, a brief rainstorm, pensive before a quieter storm returns. 3rd mvmt: Jazzy activity, a bit jocular, fading in the last 3 minutes to a rapid stroll then a run along the sidewalk alongside Central Park. Symphony No. 1 Op. 20, Of Nature, written at age 16, is tonal, strives for majesty; has an alternating dark, pulsating 2nd mvmt; a quiet, sunny early Spring day 3rd mvmt, which grows dramatic in its final 2 minutes; 4th mvmt opens with peasants dancing heavily, turns to a picture of tranquil countryside, then turmoil, then settles back into harmonious tranquility.