The Bowling Green Western Symphony Orchestra will explore the final frontier with a “Music From Outer Space” concert to kick off its 99th season Thursday at First Baptist Church.

WBKO news anchor “Gene Birk is going to be our narrator, and there's a lot of great music that has the theme of outer space, and a lot of popular movie music as well,” said orchestra conductor Bill Scott.

The 7:30 p.m. concert will open with Richard Strauss's “Thus Spake Zarathustra.”

“You may not know the name of it,” Scott said, “but you'll recognize it. That's how ‘2001: A Space Odyssey' opens up.”

Then, the orchestra will play a set of Johann Strauss Jr. waltzes, including “The Blue Danube,” which was featured in �” and “gives the feeling of loss of gravity and floating in space,” Scott said.

Gustav Holst's “Mars” and “Jupiter,” which are “two pieces from the larger suite on the planets,” will come next, according to Scott.

Both planet pieces were featured in “The Man Who Fell to Earth” and “The Right Stuff.”

The second half of “Music From Outer Space” will feature “Star Trek” music composed by Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams-composed music from “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial” and “Star Wars.”

Scott said the final frontier-themed music was chosen for the concert because “we try to do a concert that has classical music in it but is really user friendly to audiences and would have a lot of appeal.”

Advance tickets to the Bowling Green performance of “Music From Outer Space,” as well as other BGWSO concerts, are $18 for adults and $5 for students and can be bought online at www.bgwso.org, by phone at the symphony office at 745-7681 or by mail at BGWSO, 500 East Main St., Bowling Green, KY 42101.

Tickets sold at the door before concerts are $20 for adults and $5 for students.

Discounts for groups of 10 or more are available.

Season tickets are also available, at $75 each for adults and $20 for students. Call, e-mail or write the orchestra office for more information.

To show appreciation to Western Kentucky University Glasgow campus students and faculty, as well as WKU friends in Barren County, the orchestra will perform the “Music From Outer Space” concert for free at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 28 at the Plaza Theater in Glasgow.

The performance is sponsored by WKU president Gary Ransdell, the Western board of regents and the Glasgow campus.

WKU Music Department Head Mitzi Groom said she's glad the university is helping the orchestra take the free concert to Barren Countians because last year during the centennial celebration for WKU the orchestra was able to take performances on the road to Owensboro and Elizabethtown, where there are also WKU campuses.

Groom thinks audiences in both Barren and Warren County will enjoy seeing WKU students perform at a professional level alongside professional musicians.

“I'd say one of the strongest reasons to come to the symphony is we've got so much student involvement,” she said. “Many orchestras are completely made up of professionals - the ones who already know how to do it - and it's really great to see students perform this caliber of music.”

According to Groom, the BGWSO, which allows Western undergraduates to try out, is a great recruiting tool for the WKU music department “because at most universities, you don't get a shot at being in the orchestra until you're a graduate student.”

Scott said he thinks audiences this year will enjoy the fact that the symphony orchestra offers “an incredible variety.”

“We have two concerts you might consider pops - ‘Holiday Pops' and this ‘Music From Outer Space,'” he said. “And of course we offer two very classical-oriented programs - the ‘Sweethearts Concert' and the November concert (featuring music by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn and Richard Wagner) - where we offer staples of the symphonic repertoire.”

The orchestra also offers a chamber music series featuring guest artists.

Advance tickets to the chamber music series performances are $18 for adults and $5 for students. Season subscriptions to the chamber series are $45 for adults and $12 for students.

Scott hopes crowds will come out for each concert in the BGWSO's regular season and the chamber music series, both of which lead up the symphony orchestra's 100th season next year.

“I'm really looking forward to giving information soon about our 100th season,” he said. “We've already started working on it and hope to have it all planned out before the first of the year.”

In addition to “Music From Outer Space,” this year's regular season series by the BGWSO includes:

Nov. 1 - The “BMW” concert, including music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Wagner, will be at 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church and will feature Seth Granger on violin.

Dec. 6 - The popular “Holiday Pops” performance of traditional and popular seasonal music will feature harpist Natalie Riley of Bowling Green, the Bowling Green Western Choral Society and WKU choirs at 7:30 p.m. at Van Meter Auditorium at Western.

Feb. 21 - This “Sweethearts Concert,” featuring Gleb Ivanov on piano, will center around Peter Tchaikovsky's “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy” and “Piano Concerto No. 1” and Astor Piazzolla's “Tangazo” at 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church.

April 24 - The “Choral Spectacular” event will showcase the Bowling Green Western Choral Society and WKU choirs performing Carl Orff's “Carmina Burana” at 7:30 p.m. at First Baptist Church.

The orchestra's chamber music series schedule is as follows:

Oct. 14 - WKU music faculty and alumni will perform an “Autumn Collage” concert at 3 p.m. in the recital hall in the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center at Western. Proceeds from this concert benefit a WKU scholarship.

Nov. 18 - The Vega String Quartet will perform at 3 p.m. at The Presbyterian Church on State Street.

March 30 - The St. Louis Brass Quintet will be in concert at 3 p.m. at The Presbyterian Church.