European presenters had requested an "all-American" program, according to the orchestra; works to be performed include the concert version of Porgy and Bess, featuring soprano Cynthia Haymon-Coleman and bass baritone Kevin Deas. Also scheduled are Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Ravel's Piano Concerto with Pascal Rog_.

The orchestra will be led by music director Carl St. Clair, who was principal guest conductor of the Radio Sinfonie Orchester Stuttgart from 1998 to 2004 and is a frequent guest conductor in Germany. He was recently appointed chief music director of the German National Theater and Staatskapelle in Weimar, Germany, the only non-European to hold that post in 500 years.

The 2005-06 season is the Symphony's last in the Orange County Performing Arts Center's Segerstrom Hall. It moves to its new home, the $200 million Ren_e and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall designed by architect Cesar Pelli and acoustician Russell Johnson, this fall.