The festival runs July 4-11 at the NAC. Zukerman, who cut short his "sabbatical" to return to the orchestra this month, will lead three concerts: an all-Beethoven evening, an all-Russian concert, and an all-Mozart concert. He will also appear as a violin and viola soloist, performing Beethoven's Romance for Violin and Orchestra, Tchaikovsky's S_r_nade m_lancolique, and Mozart's Sinfonia concertante.

Other soloists include pianists Joseph Kalichstein, Stuart Goodyear, Roberto Plano, Katherine Chi, Winston Choi, Xiang Zou, and Ingrid Fliter. Plano, Chi, Choi, and Zou are all laureates of Canada's Honens Piano Competition; Fliter is the 2006 winner of the $300,000 Gilmore Prize.

The NACO also said that it would perform at Montreal's Notre Dame Basilica on July 12, in a concert marking its first visit to the city since 1989. Zukerman leads a program of Mozart, Brahms, and Bach.