Guest conductor Eckart Preu leads the Portland Symphony Orchestra in a program featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with guest soloist Tai Murray at 7:30 p.m. March 8 at Merrill Auditorium.

Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, was the composer’s last large orchestral work. Its popularity has continued to grow, and is one of the most frequently performed violin concertos. Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4, titled “Romantic,” completes the evening’s program.

Acclaimed as “superb” by the New York Times, Murray is a rising star of her generation and was the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2004. Her 2010-11 season highlights include appearances with the Chicago Sinfonietta, the Philharmonic Staatsorchester Mainz and the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain at the Barbican, as well as her first project as recording artist for Harmonia Mundi.

Preu, born in East Germany, is music director of the Spokane Symphony and the Stamford Symphony, and has conducted at Carnegie Hall, the Sorbonne in Paris, and with the Jerusalem Symphony. Preu and PSO Music Director Robert Moody have known each other since 1995, when they studied conducting together.

An open dress rehearsal will be at 7 p.m. March 7. Tickets are free, but space is limited. For information, call 773-6128.

A “Concert Conversation” will be at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday before the concert. Following the concert, patrons are invited to join in a question-and-answer session held on stage with the artists and then on to Restaurant Grace for an “Afterglow” cocktail reception.

The concert will be broadcast on MPBN on April 13.

For more information, visit www.portlandsymphony.org.

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