OTTUMWA — The Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra will kick off its 59th season with the fall concert series in Ottumwa, Burlington and Mt. Pleasant next weekend.

Performances are: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 24 at Bridge View Center in Ottumwa; 3 p.m. Oct. 25 at Memorial Auditorium in Burlington and again at 7:30 p.m. in the newly renovated IWC Chapel Auditorium in Mt. Pleasant.

Under the baton of Robert McConnell, SEISO will captivate audiences with performances of “En Saga” (Fairy Tale), a tone poem by Sibelius; Tchaikovsky’s lively “Cossack Dance” from Mazeppa and his immortal “1812 Overture.”

SEISO’s youngest guest artists, Serena Lu and Colton Peliter, are returning to help open the season.

Serena will perform the last two movements of Mozart’s “Piano Concerto No. 21,” and Colton will perform Liszt’s energetic and lyrical “Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat Major.”

Serena Lu, 11, is a seventh grader at the Central Middle school in Columbia Heights, Minn. Serena began studying piano at age 5 and has won first place and received honors in many piano competitions. At age 8, she was chosen to perform Bach’s “Piano Concerto No.5 in f minor” with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, making her the youngest musician ever to solo with the SPCO. She has also soloed with the Mount Olivet Festival Orchestra, SEISO, the Minnesota orchestra and the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra. She performed at the National Piano Teacher’s Workshop in Goshen, Ind., and the National Conference on Piano Pedagogy in Chicago, Ill. She is the featured pianist in “The Gravi-DVD: teaching Dr. Paul Wirth’s gravity based piano technique.” She was invited to perform for Desmond Tutu at the “National Youth Conference of Leadership” in 2007.

At age 9, Colton Peltier, now 15, performed Beethoven’s “Concerto No. 1” with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in eight young people’s concerts. He has performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, Kenwood Symphony, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Virginia Waring International Competition Orchestra, the Southeast Iowa Symphony Orchestra, the La Mont Symphony in Denver, Colo., the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra and with the Des Moines Symphony. He also has soloed at many venues, most recently at the “From the Top” gala in Boston, Mass., and on National Radio’s “From the Top” in Aspen, Colo.

Admission is by season ticket or single admission, available at the door — adult $12, students (age 12 and older) $6. Season tickets are: $60 Family Pass; $30 Adult Pass; $15 Student Pass. Children under 12 are admitted free.

Pre-concert talks with Robert McConnell are 45 minutes before each performance.

Complete guest artist biographies and program notes, written by Jim Priebe, are available on the SEISO web site — www.seiso.us.. Go to the “Concerts Events” page.

The 2009 Fall Concert Series is sponsored by Brazelton Hotel & Suites in Mt. Pleasant, KYOU Fox 15 TV and Ottumwa Wal-Mart.