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CORVALLIS - The Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra, directed by Marlan Carlson, will present the final concert of its 2002-03 season on Tuesday, May 20. The concert, featuring a jazz-inspired piano concerto by Maurice Ravel, begins at 8 p.m. at LaSells Stewart Center on the Oregon State University campus.

Rachelle McCabe, professor of piano at OSU, will be the featured soloist in Ravel's "Piano Concerto in G Major." Ravel's piano concerto of 1931 exhibits many jazz characteristics in its improvisatory character, harmonies, brashness and bluesy melodies; the composer had visited Harlem and New Orleans just three years before composing his work.

"In this gem of a concerto, Ravel has succeeded brilliantly in synthesizing jazz, classical and Spanish elements with Mozartian clarity and Lisztian virtuosity," Carlson said.

Opening the program will be another French favorite, the "Roman Carnival Overture" of Hector Berlioz. Composed in 1843, the overture was intended as an introduction to his opera, "Benvenuto Cellini."

The program concludes with the "First Symphony" of Viennese composer, Johannes Brahms. A humble and shy person, Brahms had great difficulty completing his first symphony. He frequently admitted to being intimidated by the great symphonies of his Viennese predecessor, Ludwig van Beethoven. It is said that he burned many completed symphonies before he was finally allowed this First Symphony to be published in 1876. He was 43 years old at the time, an age that neither Mozart nor Schubert ever reached.

OSU's Carlson returns to campus after spending winter term in Vienna on a teaching assignment.

"Having attended 34 operas and over 20 symphony concerts, I definitely feel that a bit of the Viennese approach to music has gotten into my bloodstream," he said. "It's a great pleasure to have the opportunity to share this with our Corvallis orchestral musicians and symphony patrons."

McCabe has performed throughout the United States and Canada. In addition to solo recitals in Seattle, Singapore, Malaysia, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Detroit, Portland and Great Britain, she has been heard on NPR's Performance Today, the CBC, and PBS television. She has collaborated in chamber music recitals and concerto performances with a number of fine artists including David Shifrin, Peter Schickele, Yuri Mazurkevich, Carol Wincenc and Gary Karr.

High school and college students will be admitted to the concert for free with ID; younger students are free with an adult. Adult tickets, priced at $18, will be available at the OSU Department of Music, Scandinavian Trading Company, Creative Crafts and Frame Shop, Grass Roots Bookstore, and Gracewinds Music in Corvallis, and at Sid Stevens Jewelers in Albany.

For more information, call 541-737-4061.