Colorado Springs Philharmonic will kick off its 97th season with a burst of Brahms and a new face at the podium.

Ari Pelto, music director for Opera Colorado, will be the first of 10 guest conductors this season, as the nonprofit continues its search for a new music director and conductor after Josep Caballé-domenech, the Philharmonic’s ninth such leader, lifted his baton at the Pike Peak Center for the last time in May.

This weekend’s opening concert will feature Brahms’ “Symphony No. 2,” Verdi’s “Overture to Nabucco” and Bruch’s “Violin Concerto No. 1,” with violinist and Philharmonic concertmaster Michael Hanson. The Masterworks series performances are Saturday and Sunday at Pikes Peak Center.

“Aside from (the) fact I adore Brahms and this piece above almost any other, Brahms is a great way to get to know an orchestra,” Pelto said. “With all the romanticism and lushness of the expression, it requires a great deal of discipline to play. It’s structured so tightly and rhythmically complicated and sophisticated.”

It took Brahms almost two decades to write his first symphony in 1876, yet less than a year to compose his second,

which premiered in 1877.

“His second is very different,” Pelto said. “He was in a very good state of mind writing it, up in the Alps in an idyllic setting, and it flowed from him in a different way. With Brahms there’s always a melancholy, always the danger of heartbreak around every corner. Even in his most sunny music there’s melancholy and sadness and in his most tragic music there’s tenderness and hope.”

First up in the Philharmonic Pops series is “Marvel vs. DC,” on Oct. 6-7 with conductor Thomas Wilson. The first performances in the Signature Series are Oct. 21-22 with works by Mozart and Prokofiev and conducted by Andrew Grams.

The philharmonic has received more than 250 applications from around the globe for the music director position. Some of this season’s 10 guest conductors are applicants. But don’t expect a big announcement after the 2023-2024 season; it will likely go into the following season due to the number of applicants.

“It’s normal for orchestras of our size and experience to have an extended search,” said Philharmonic president and CEO Nathan Newbrough. “There’s no specific timeline. We’ve got to make sure we find the right person, even if (it) takes a while to do that.”

Pelto, and each of the guest conductors, were given the opportunity to design their own programs, though the symphony decided on each concert’s guest artist and advised conductors to not select any pieces the symphony has done recently.

“We gave very little guidelines or guard rails,” Newbrough said. “Make it a showpiece for yourself.”

Though all of this season’s 10 conductors have done some opera, Pelto, who’s also a violinist, is the only music director of an opera company. He joined Opera Colorado a decade ago, became the organization’s first music director in 2015, and has conducted “La Traviata,” “Don Giovanni,” “Aida” and many other productions.

Pelto has conducted around the world, beginning as assistant conductor at the Spoleto Festival in South Carolina when he was 24. In 2004, he made his debut with New York City Opera, conducting “La Traviata,” followed by “Carmen,” “La Bohème” and “Madama Butterfly.”

“I bring as much of a symphonic sensibility to the opera world and as much of an operatic sensibility to the symphonic world,” he said. “The main thing about opera is it includes the human voice, what it’s capable of, how it functions and expresses itself. As instrumentalists we strive to play as closely to the human voice as we can. The voice is essential, basic, primal, the most natural instrument there is.”