Violinist Tokuji Miyasaka, a nationwide winner of the Music Teachers National Association Strings Competition, will be the featured soloist performing with the Cascade Symphony Orchestra (CSO) for its concert on Monday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. at the Edmonds Center for the Arts (ECA), 410 4th Ave. N., in Edmonds.

The event will be the orchestra’s final concert of the 2024-25 season – its 63rd in Edmonds. A pre-concert lecture at 6:30 p.m., by KING-FM radio personality Dave Beck, will preview the musical highlights for the evening.

Michael Miropolsky, CSO’s maestro and musical director, notes that the orchestra will present “four outstanding, yet stylistically different, compositions” during the evening’s performances.

“The symphonic poem by Russian composer Alexander Borodin – In the Steppes of Central Asia – has been a concert favorite since its first performance in 1880,” Miropolsky said. Borodin’s creation will lead off the concert.

“About 60 years before (Borodin’s creation), Italian violinist Niccolo Paganini premiered his finger-breaking First Violin Concerto, causing an uproar of excitement in the audience,” Miropolsky explained. “Paganini’s demonic appearance and electrifying performances quickly made him a living legend,” hence the concert title, The Devil’s Violin.

“We’ll have with us a young virtuoso violinist, Tokuji Miyasaka, who will show off in this dazzling Paganini concerto,” Miropolsky added. It will be the second musical offering of the evening.

The 18-year-old Miyasaka, winner of the CSO’s “Rising Star” competition in 2018, was named a Seattle Symphony Young Artist in 2023, and has been awarded more than 20 first prizes at competitions, including the Festival Medal at the Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Concerto Competition. He also was a first prize laureate at the 2021 Kocian International Violin Competition, where the jury chairman, Pavel Hula, attributed Miyasaka’s success to “precise virtuosity (and a) beautiful variety of colors.”

The young violinist has performed across North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. He made his solo orchestral debut at the age of 11 with the Spokane Symphony.

Miropolsky promises “a big surprise” for the audience after the intermission when the orchestra plays “a unique piece by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara titled Cantus Arcticus, Concerto for Birds and Orchestra. It incorporates tape recordings of birdsongs recorded near the Arctic Circle.”

The final musical offering of the concert and the season will be Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “brilliant” Capriccio Italien. The colorful piece was inspired by sounds he heard during a visit to Rome around 1880 and begins with the trumpet fanfare that the composer heard as the Italian military practiced maneuvers nearby.

Concert ticket prices are $30 for adults; $26 for seniors (60-plus); and $10 for youth (12 and younger).

Tickets can be purchased online through the ECA website and by telephone (425-275-9595). The ECA Box Office may be reached by email at boxoffice@ec4arts.org. and is currently open noon-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and extended hours during performances.

Additional information about the Cascade Symphony Orchestra is available online at www.cascadesymphony.org. The CSO will soon announce its concert schedule and musical offerings for the 2025-26 season that will begin in October.