The Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra continues its 48th season with Romeo & Juliet and Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, featuring guest violinist Steven Moeckel.

Performances are Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. at the Asteria CMU Performing Arts Theatre, 844 Bunting Ave. Music Director Charles Latshaw conducts.

Born in Germany, Moeckel toured as principal soprano soloist with the Vienna Boys Choir before graduating with honors from the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He continued his studies with Miriam Fried at Indiana University and has served as concertmaster of the Ulm Philharmonic, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, The Phoenix Symphony and the Santa Fe Opera. He was also the first Western violinist to perform The Butterfly Lovers concerto with a Chinese orchestra.

“Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is the single most famous violin solo in the world, and for so many good reasons. It’s full of catchy melodies, it’s impressive, and it’s beautiful,” Latshaw said. “And Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet is the very reason I’m a musician today. When I was a teenager, my mother took me to hear an orchestra for the first time. They started into the powerful first notes, and I was hooked. I knew that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Adult tickets start at $21, and student tickets are $5.25. Tickets are available at gjso.org, by phone at 970-243-6787, or in person at the GJSO box office, 412 Main St., open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The box office also opens at the theatre one hour before each performance.

The program opens with Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D major, a work that packs more melody into thirty-nine minutes than most composers managed in a lifetime. After intermission, the orchestra performs eight movements drawn from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet suites, moving from the propulsive street scenes and dances to the stillness of the tomb scene that closes the program.