Witches and creatures and sorcerers will be conjured through music rather than words and images when the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra opens its 2012-13 season.
Conductor and Music Director Susan Davenny Wyner said there were plenty of choices in the classical repertoire for assembling a program built around the Halloween season.
''So many composers love the process of telling stories,'' Wyner said. ''The great ones were fascinated by that exchange between dramatic text and what music can bring to it.''
The selections range from the familiar - like Dukas' ''The Sorcerer's Apprentice,'' prominently featured in Walt Disney's ''Fantasia'' - to the less well-known - Dvorak's ''The Noon Witch.'' It tells the story of a witch that preys on misbehaving children.
'''The Noon Witch' is not very often performed,'' Wyner said. ''It's kind of a grim story that was very in vogue in Europe, but not here. But the way he used the orchestra is just fabulous.''
Also on the program will be Rossini's ''The Thieving Magpie Overture,'' Beethoven's ''Creatures of Prometheus Overture,'' Mussorgsky's ''Night on Bald Mountain,'' Debussy's ''The Little Shepherd & Golliwog's Cakewalk'' and Stravinsky's ''Circus Polka.''
Fact Box
When You?Go
WHAT: ''Halloween Spectacular'' - Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, Susan Davenny Wyner, conductor.
WHEN: 3 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Christ Episcopal Church, 2627 Atlantic St. N.E., Warren
HOW MUCH: $27.50 adults, $25 senior citizens, $12 students ages 13-21 and free for children ages 12 and younger.
2012-13 SEASON: Sunday's concert is the first of two performances by the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, which also will perform April 7, 2013, with organist Todd Wilson. Season tickets are $50 for adults, $45 for senior citizens and $25 for students. For tickets or more information, call 330-399-3606.
''These are short pieces, but they've got content and have surprises that the audience will love and the musicians love to play,'' she said.
Wyner, who has been the conductor of the orchestra since 1999, said the skill of those musicians gives her the freedom to pick whatever music works best in the program.
''This orchestra has marvelous players,'' she said. ''They are the real stars in the sense that these are musicians who could play in any orchestra in this country. It's a treat because I never feel there are things I can't program.''
Sunday's opening performance also will serve as the orchestra's annual family concert. The ensemble will play an abbreviated version of the program on Friday for area schoolchildren in two daytime concerts at Lakeview High School. The public performance will include an instrument petting zoo, which will allow children to get an up-close look at the tools of the orchestral trade.
And the winning entries in the orchestra's ''Art in Music'' contest will be displayed. Wyner selects classical works and makes CDs for area teachers, who let the music inspire their students artistically.
''The children always come up with some wonderful pictures,'' Wyner said.