BACK TO BASS-ICS. Maestro Nobuyoshi Yasuda, far left, conducts the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra at a recent rehearsal. Their final concert of the season in May 10.

If you haven’t been able to experience the wonder that is the Chippewa Valley Symphony orchestra during its 2013-14 season, then you had better listen up because time is running out. The theme of the symphony’s final concert of the season is – appropriately – “The Last Word: Strauss and Bartok.” The program will include Richard Strauss’ “Vier Letzte Lieder” (“Four Last Songs” – and they really were the last works composed by Strauss before his death) and Bela Bartok’s “Concerto for Orchestra” (which, likewise, was one of that’s composer’s last works). The Strauss songs will feature a soprano soloist, Mitra Sadeghpour, an associate professor of music at UW-Eau Claire.

“The Last Word” concert is dedicated to Dale Young, one of the orchestra’s founders, who recently passed away. He was instrumental in guiding the orchestra for the past four decades and was an accomplished music teacher.

The CVSO, which was founded in 1975, includes a core group of approximately 50 performers, but there have been as many as 75 members depending on need. The numbers aren’t the only things that have varied about the orchestra; the musicians themselves are quite diverse. The core group includes members who have played with the symphony since its inception as well as UWEC student musicians who may have only played with the symphony for a season or two. The geography of the players is also diverse: Members hail from the Eau Claire area as well as from all over western Wisconsin and as far away as the Twin Cities.

The concert will be at 7:30pm on Saturday, May 10, at Gantner Concert Hall in UWEC’s Haas Fine Arts Center. You can get tickets online at cvsymphony.org, by calling 715-832-6366, or at the door. For more information call or visit their website.