The final concert of the 40th anniversary season of the Nittany Valley Symphony will be held Saturday night in Eisenhower Auditorium.

"We're the only full-sized orchestra between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia," said executive director Tere Rill, adding that there are about 14 members still playing who have been with the symphony since its inception in 1967.

The evening, titled "Ecstatic Visions," will include Ravel's La Valse, or "The Waltz," which Ravel wrote as a response to the end of the Viennese Hapsburg empire, musical director Michael Jinbo said.

"It starts out with this beautiful waltz melody and it gets wilder and wilder until it self destructs," he said.

The orchestra will also be performing Respighi's Vetrate di chiesa, or "church windows," written in four parts, each trying to capture the essence of an imaginary stained-glass window. Jinbo describes it as "very colorful orchestration" representing the beauty of artful stained glass.

The concluding piece, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major, will feature Jeff Thayer as the soloist. He had performed with the orchestra as a young man and is now the concertmaster of the San Diego Symphony. Thayer will be performing in his second guest appearance.

Rill said there is a special discount for those who hail from Thayer's hometown.

"In honor of Jeff Thayer, who comes from Williamsport, we thought it would be nice if anyone [from his hometown] wanted to come and hear him play. All they have to do is mention that they're from Williamsport when they buy the tickets," she said.