By Peter Alexander

Stephen Lias in Gates or the Arctic National Park. Photo courtesy of the composer.

Opening night for the Boulder Philharmonic offers a real triple threat.

The concert under music director Michael Butterman, at 7 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 14, in Macky Auditorium, launches the 2014-15 season with three pieces that would each be noteworthy on any program (http://boulderphil.org/concerts/opening-night).

The very opening piece will be the world  premiere of Gates of the Arctic, an avowedly pictorial work portraying the Gates of the Arctic National Park, written by composer Stephen Lias, who describes himself as an “adventurer/ composer.”

Gabriela Martinez

If that doesn’t capture your imagination, next on the program will be the Second Piano Concerto by Camille Saint-Saëns. That performance will introduce Gabriela Martinez, an emerging pianist from Venezuela whose career has been boosted by Gustavo Dudamel, the young conductor who created a sensation when he moved from Venezuela’s Simon

Charles Wetherbee

Bolivar Youth Orchestra to the podium of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

And third will be Rimsky- Korsakov’s brilliant Scheherazade, which is not only a crowd-pleaser but also an

opportunity to introduce the orchestra’s new concertmaster, Charles Wetherbee, who will play the prominent violin solos throughout the score.

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