Midcoast Symphony Orchestra continues its 35th season with a concert titled “Passionate & Fiery Compositions” in Lewiston on March 22 and in Topsham on March 23. Guest conductor Hiroya Miura, associate professor of music at Bates College, will lead the orchestra in these fire-themed performances.

Hiroya Miura will be the guest conductor for Midcoast Symphony Orchestra’s concerts on March 22 and 23. William Cochran photo

Miura has chosen Robert Schumann’s “Symphony No. 2” as the concert’s centerpiece. The program also includes “Prometheus” by Franz Liszt, “Ballade in A Minor” by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and the “Firebird Suite” by Igor Stravinsky. MSO will perform at 7 p.m. on the 22nd at the Franco Center in Lewiston and at 2:30 p.m. on the 23rd at the Orion Performing Arts Center in Topsham. Individual tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door, with free admission for anyone 25 and under. Complete concert and ticket information is available at midcoastsymphony.org or by calling 481-0790.

Two pieces in “Passionate & Fiery Compositions” have a direct connection to fire. Liszt’s “Prometheus” depicts the suffering of the mythic hero who was punished by the gods for giving fire to humankind but also imagines an eventual freedom for Prometheus from the chains that shackled him. Stravinsky’s “Firebird,” written in 1910 for the celebrated Ballet Russes in Paris, is based on a folk tale about a beautiful mythic bird who helps to destroy an evil sorcerer. The other two works, even though not telling specific stories, are filled with their own fiery passion. The Englishman Coleridge-Taylor wrote his “Ballade in A Minor” in 1898 when he was only 23, and it brims with the explosive energy of a highly gifted young composer. Schumann’s “Symphony No. 2,” written after a mental breakdown in 1845, reflects some of the emotional turmoil in his life as he battled poor health and other challenges, but the music ultimately is uplifting and triumphant.

Concertgoers are invited to arrive an hour before the concert begins to hear a “More with Midcoast” conversation about the program with Miura and Caroline Cornish, the leader of the second violin section.

Miura, a native of Sendai, Japan, holds a doctorate in music from Columbia University. Besides his position at Bates, where he teaches music theory and composition and directs the college orchestra, he is the artistic director of Columbia’s Japanese Cultural Heritage Initiatives and serves on the advisory board for the Composers Conference. As a conductor Miura has led premieres by several emerging composers in the New York area. His own compositions have been presented in venues and festivals around the world, including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood and Tokyo Opera City (Japan). Miura’s new multilingual opera “Intercourse of Ghosts,” which reimagines the correspondence between Franz Kafka and Milena Jesenská, will be premiered at the end of March at the Czech Center in New York.