Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown, will once again welcome the renowned Curtis Symphony Orchestra for a concert, 7:30 p.m. May 6.

The performance will feature 100 musicians who may comprise “probably the best young orchestra in the world,” according to Dr. David Ludwig, Curtis’s dean of artistic programs and performance.

The program will open with Samuel Barber’s “Adiago for Strings,” directed by Conner Gray Covington, conducting fellow.

Next, Osmo Vänskä, musical director for the Minnesota Symphony, will conduct the Brahms’ “Piano Concerto No. 1, featuring piano soloist Peter Serkin, and Richard Strauss’s “Ein Heldenleben” (“A Hero’s Life”).

Vänskä, formerly a principal clarinetist, won the 982 Besançon Young Conductors Competition and became first guest conductor and later chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra. He was also chief conductor of the Iceland Symphony, and principal conductor of BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra before becoming music director of the Minnesota Orchestra in 2003.

The concert showcases Curtis alumni. Barber began his studies at Curtis at age 14 in the mid-1920s and went on to a storied career as a composer, twice winning the Pulitzer Prize.

Serkin began at Curtis in 1958 at age 11 and has performed as a soloist with numerous major symphonies around the world, including the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras, among others. He has performed recitals at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and Orchestra Hall in Chicago.

Conducting fellow Covington is completing his studies at Curtis and will take on the mantle of assistant conductor of the Utah Symphony for the 2017-18 season.

Curtis accepts students regardless of age. Ludwig notes that the roster includes an 11-year-old violinist and a 30-year-old composer. He cites “the uniqueness of the place, the students, the energy, the passion … as factors leading musicians to face the daunting odds and audition at Curtis.

Curtis accepts a mere three percent of its applicants. Curtis’s provides merit-based full-tuition scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students.

The Symphony begins a two-week tour of Europe shortly after its Allentown performance.

Tickets: Miller Symphony Hall Box Office, 23 N. Sixth St., Allentown; allentownsymphony.org; 610-432-6715