The Federal Way Symphony’s season finale will showcase concertmaster Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi performing Brahms’ Violin Concerto. Performances will be 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 7, at and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 8, at the Federal Way Performing Arts and Event Center (PAEC), 31510 Pete von Reichbauer Way S.

The concerts will also include Mozart’s Overture to the Marriage of Figaro and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.

Considered “symphonic” rather than “virtuoso,” Brahms’ only violin concerto nonetheless presents formidable technical demands on its soloist. Both Kransberg-Talvi and symphony Maestro A. Brian Davenport have wanted to perform the work for some time and the inaugural season at the PAEC presents the opportunity to do so in a venue that is gaining a reputation as one of the best in the Puget Sound region, according to media release from the Federal Way Symphony.

Asked how she prepared for the performance, Kransberg-Talvi said she “steps into” the music by studying the score, practicing and thinking how her efforts will mesh with the symphony. Her weeks of intensive practice culminate in just two rehearsals with the full symphony prior to the performance. She admits she avoids listening to other artists’ performances of the concerto when she first begins preparing, in order to come to her own interpretation of the work. However, she has recently begun listening to others’ recordings and is particularly inspired by Leonidas Kavakos’ performance with conductor Fabio Luisi and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra.

Kransberg-Talvi showed musical promise at a young age and was encouraged by her mother who pursued the violin as a passionate amateur, according to the release. She made her first solo appearance with the New Hampshire Philharmonic at age nine and studied at Julliard and USC, where she was a pupil of Jascha Heifetz. She worked as a Hollywood studio musician at the beginning of her professional career and, after moving to Seattle, served as concertmaster for the Pacific Northwest Ballet and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra for more than 20 years.

Established by artistic director A. Brian Davenport in 1983, the Federal Way Symphony celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2018. The symphony brings professional performances of classical and modern music to audiences in South King and North Pierce counties and works to inspire and nurture young classical musicians through its “Emerging Artists” program.