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Christopher M. Cicconi will lead his first concert as conductor and music director of the Warren Philharmonic Orchestra this weekend.

What happens before and after those performances is just as important to him as the concert itself.

Cicconi was announced in July as the successor to Susan Davenny Wyner, who stepped down as the orchestra’s conductor and music director after 24 years, but he will not meet some of the musicians he will lead until the orchestra’s first rehearsal on Thursday. . They’re not all strangers to the 1996 Austintown Fitch High School and Dana School of Music graduate, who even played tuba for a few WPO concerts as a student at Youngstown State University.

“I’ve seen the squad and it really is a first-class, first-class group,” said Cicconi, band director and music professor at James Madison University in Virginia. “I know some of them. I went to school with them or some were my professors when I was at YSU. So the selection that I’ve seen is phenomenal, but some of these people I haven’t seen since I graduated, which was in 2000.

How he wants to approach that first rehearsal is an extension of his philosophy as a conductor.

“My whole philosophy for working with an ensemble is very simple: just be nice, be a good person,” Cicconi said. “Compliment the orchestra when they deserve it. If there are things I need to work on, sure, but there are ways to do that.

“That orchestra knows who I am from the first word that comes out of my mouth. I like to share stories about my life, because I want them to get to know me, besides as a conductor. I want them to get to know me as a person. I want them to know that I have two children. I want them to know that I am a teacher. I want them to know that I love walking. And on the other hand, I immerse myself in the culture there and say, ‘Hey, what do you like to do? What do you think about this?’ I think it’s important to get to know the group beyond the fact that they’re musicians, but that all starts with being open, approachable and just being a nice person.”

That is one of the reasons that Cicconi considers a reception for the orchestra members at one of the board members’ home on Friday to be just as important as the rehearsals on Thursday, Friday and the day of the Saturday concert at the First Presbyterian Church. It gives the conductor and the artists the opportunity to interact socially. That is also the reason that the orchestra performs on Saturday evening instead of on Sunday afternoon, while most concerts in recent years have taken place.

“I asked to move them to Saturday so we could do something together on Saturday evening,” he said. “When concerts take place on Sundays, people usually go home afterwards and get ready for the week. Now they have the whole day off on Sunday. So I hope that Saturday evening, after the concert, we can get together for some fun and celebrate the concert and talk about things to come. And I am very curious what the musicians expect from their conductor.”

The program for that first concert includes Richard Strauss’s Overture “The Fledermaus,” Gabriel Faure “Pavane,” Danzon No. 2 by Arturo Marquez and Symphony No. 8 by Antonin Dvorak.

Putting together a program is a combination of selecting works that are both interesting and challenging for the musicians and enjoyable for the audience. The opening piece “is one of the most famous overtures written in the orchestral canon, and it contains a lot of really nice melodies,” said Cicconi, and Marquez’s composition is filled with pulsating rhythms. “Pavane” is a serene and tranquil contrast between those two works in the first half of the program, and Cicconi compared listening to the Dvorak Symphony to a walk through nature.

There was an additional consideration for this concert.

“There is a very good chance that the orchestra has played every piece on the program,” Cicconi said. “The reason I did that is I want to find music that we can grow together with, but I don’t want music that is so far away in my first rehearsal where we struggle to understand the music before we can understand the dynamics . how the conductor and the orchestra work together. I chose this one because I think the music will come together somewhat quickly, but more importantly, I think music will take our relationship to a more powerful level pretty quickly.

The orchestra will play an abbreviated version of the program for area schoolchildren at Packard Music Hall on Friday, the first children’s concert since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Friday performance will feature something new for WPO concertgoers: an opening act. The Warren G. Harding High School Symphonic Band plays for the orchestra. Both reflect Cicconi’s desire to inspire new generations of classical musicians and listeners.

“I went to school with Reid Young, the director, and (assistant director) Heather Sirney is also a graduate of YSU,” Cicconi said. “Since we are the Warren Philharmonic, the first group I contacted was Warren G. Harding High School. They’re going to play three or four pieces to open the concert, and then the symphony orchestra will play. I hope that during or after the concert there will be some time for a meeting where the young musicians can perhaps talk to the professional musicians. Many of them might aspire to sit in their seats one day.”

If you go…

WHAT: “Songs and Dances” — Warren Philharmonic Orchestra with Christopher Cicconi, conductor, and Warren G. Harding High School Symphonic Band

WHEN: Saturday 7:00 PM

WHERE: First Presbyterian Church, 256 Mahoning Ave. NW, Warren

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $30 for adults, $15 for students and free for children 12 and under and are available online at warren-philharmonic.org and at the door. For more information, please call 330-399-3606.