The sun is setting on Vallejo Symphony Orchestra’s 2016-17 season. What better way to cap it off than with a program titled “Evening”?

Eagle-eyed concertgoers may have noticed a theme with this year’s main VSO concerts, namely that they all have been named after parts of the day as well as nicknames for symphonies by Joseph Haydn. In October, the season kicked off with a program titled “Morning” and featuring a performance of Haydn’s sixth symphony— sometimes called the “morning” symphony. In January, the theme continued with “Noon” and a performance of Haydn’s seventh symphony— aka the “Noon” symphony. Finally, on Sunday, March 12, the arc will conclude with “Evening,” featuring a performance of Haydn’s eighth symphony.

You can guess what this symphony is commonly known as.

However, Haydn will not be the only composer whose works will be highlighted at this concert— which will also be the first one to be held at the Empress Theatre, having relocated from its previous location at Hogan Middle School’s auditorium. The afternoon will also feature performances of compositions by Russian composers Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Dmitry Kabalevsky.
As with all of VSO’s performances, the latter performance will feature a special guest.

Kay Stern, who will be performing violin on Kabalevsky’s “Violin Concerto in C Major,” has been the concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra since 1994. Her love of music goes back to when she was a child and her father would take out his violin on Sundays and play.

“He loved the violin,” she said. “He was frustrated he wasn’t a violinist.”

As Stern later learned, her father was playing the same one page of music every time. Nonetheless, it still inspired Stern and her brother to take up violin, which she used to great effect, having also spent much of her childhood listening to violin concertos.

“I used to think the music was so familiar to me,” she said. “I wondered if I had lived back then and played it. I think it’s just because the music and the phrasing and the way that the melody might ask a question and then provide an answer that there was something that just made a lot of sense to me musically.”

She was also able to see pictures and imagine characters while playing music.

“It was very natural to me, and also I started young enough that I didn’t really have to think about what I was doing,” she said. “I was told how to do it and I did it, and I practiced it the way they told us to practice it.”

Stern studied under Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School and went on to have great success as a concertmaster. She has been featured in PBS’ “Live from Lincoln Center,” Minnesota Public Radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor” and on CNN. She has also served as concertmaster for several movie and video game soundtracks performed at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and has recorded chamber and concerto music for seven record labels. Additionally, she has performed with the San Francisco Opera every year at Golden Gate Park and says that the outdoor orchestral concert experience is an enjoyable one, even with the refined acoustics.

“It can be beautiful just being able to see the trees moving and the light of the day starting to dwindle,” she said.

Stern had gone to school with Marc Taddei, VSO’s music director, and has played with him in the past. She also had known his brother Michel, who recently performed with the Mare Island String Quartet at a VSO Presents concert. Marc had approached Stern to perform, and she accepted.

The first piece of the evening will be Haydn’s “Evening” symphony, followed by Kabalevsky’s “Violin Concerto,” featuring Stern on violin.

Kabalevsky was a 20th century Russian composer, who Stern describes as having a typical composer’s story of getting into composing at a very young age and becoming successful, despite objections from his parents over getting into music. Additionally, he was also a major figure in music education, establishing pilot programs at Soviet schools.

“His music is very classical and traditional,” Stern said. “It’s not dissonant, it’s very extroverted, lyrical and energetic.”

Finally, the program will conclude with Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 6,” which is the last symphony he ever completed.

Stern hopes audiences will learn how fun orchestral music can be.

“Hopefully, they’ll hear happiness, sadness, fun frolicking and be taken away for a while,” she said.

Additionally, she hopes the concert will become a shared experience.

“Aside from going to a place of worship or a church, we hardly ever sit and do nothing but listen, except at a concert,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s a very satisfying and healthy experience for everybody.

“Evening” will begin at 3 p.m., Sunday, March 12 at the Empress Theatre, located at 330 Virginia St. Tickets are $15 for students ages 13 and up, $30 for seniors ages 60 and up and $40 for adults. They can be purchased at BrownPaperTickets.com. For more information, visit http://www.vallejosymphony.org/season.html.