LEWISTON — On Saturday, Oct. 20, the Franco-American Heritage Center will host its ninth annual Gala Benefit Concert, featuring a performance by the Midcoast Symphony Orchestra with guest piano soloist George Lopez.

The music begins with a performance of Claude Debussy’s “Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun,” followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op.19. The program concludes with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Op.35.

The gala concert is the first in a series of four MSO concerts at Franco this season. It is the center’s biggest musical event of the year and kicks off the 2012-13 slate of events. 

The theme for the evening is Las Vegas and beginning at 6 p.m. concertgoers will be served wine and hors d’oeuvres from local restaurants and caterers, including Culinary Concepts, DaVinci’s Eatery, the Green Ladle, Gritty McDuff’s, Margaritas, Naral’s Restaurant, Pat’s Pizza, Rolly’s Diner ,and Town and Country Foods.

After the 7:30 p.m. concert there will be a dessert and champagne reception featuring sweets from Bates College, the Bread Shack, Grant’s Bakery and Starbucks.

The concert also serves as a symbolic transition in Franco Center leadership. Louis Morin will be introduced as the new executive director, replacing Rita Dube who is retiring after holding that position for 12 years. 

Lopez has been featured across the globe as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra  and collaborator. In his last appearance with the MSO, the Orion Performing Arts Center was standing room only for his performance of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

For this concert, Lopez will present one of the most popular and well-liked piano concertos of the classical repertoire. Beethoven wrote his first three concertos for himself to play, and his virtuosity is reflected in the trills and arpeggios of this graceful piece.

Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade musically tells tales from “The Arabian Nights.” Sultan Shahriyar, disgusted with the infidelity of his wife,  takes to marrying virgins for one night only, executing them in the morning before they have a chance to be unfaithful. Scheherazade, daughter of the grand vizier, offers herself. She is a master storyteller and keeps herself alive by always leaving her story unfinished at bedtime. The sultan has no choice but to keep her alive to hear how the story continues. 

Debussy’s “Afternoon of a Faun” tells a slightly less fraught tale of a satyr’s (Pan’s) afternoon. The lush melody evokes the sensuality of the original poem by Mallarme on which Debussy based his musical work.

Couple of concerts

WHO: Midcoast Symphony Orchestra

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 20

WHERE: Franco-American Heritage Center, 46 Cedar St., Lewiston

TICKETS: $50, available only at Franco Center box office (on the building’s Oxford Street side), between noon and 4 p.m. Monday-Friday

WHEN: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21

WHERE: Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham

TICKETS: $18, available at Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, Now You’re Cooking in Bath, arts center before concert and www.midcoastsymphony.org