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CORVALLIS - Alexander Tutunov, a favorite of local audiences, returns to Oregon State University to perform "Piano Concerto in F Major" by George Gershwin in the final concert of the season by the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra on Tuesday, May 25, beginning at 8 p.m. in LaSells Stewart Center.

Known to Corvallis audiences and musicians as a recitalist, concerto performer and piano coach, Tutunov is a graduate of Moscow's famous Bolshoi Conservatory. He is a professor of piano at Southern Oregon University and pursues an active concert career, performing all over the United States and abroad.

Gershwin's beloved "Piano Concerto," was first performed by the New York Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1925, with the composer as soloist, and received enthusiastic acclaim. From that moment on, it has been a perennial favorite of American audiences. Though Gershwin enjoyed tremendous success with a number of Broadway musical comedies, as well as his "Rhapsody in Blue," most critics remained skeptical about his ability to write "serious" music. The "Piano Concerto" changed that.

Marlin Carlson, music director for the Corvallis-OSU Symphony Orchestra, says the work incorporates many typical aspects of American music, including the melodies and harmonies of Charleston rhythm and blues, and "it also captures the vitality and dynamic lifestyle of New York City."

Carlson will conduct the orchestra in the program that also includes the mighty "Fourth Symphony" of Johannes Brahms and the popular "Gypsy Baron Overture" by Johann Strauss.

Brahms' monumental "Symphony No. 4" was composed in the early 1880s and first performed in 1885 under his direction, by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. It was such a success that orchestras all over the world vied to become the first to present the work in their countries.

Tickets for the concert are $20 each and are available at Creative Crafts and Frame Shop, Gracewinds Music, Grass Roots Bookstore, Scandinavian Trading Co., Sid Stevens Jewelers and the OSU Music Department. Students are admitted free with school ID; other children are admitted free with an adult.