The Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra will soon take the stage for its 2008-09 season as clarinet soloist and Bay Area native Philip O'Connor performs works by Aaron Copland and local composer Frank LaRocca.

O'Connor will play Copland's Clarinet Concerto and revisit Crossing the Rubicon, composed for the CCCO by CSU East Bay faculty member LaRocca. The 7:30 p.m. concerts will be held Saturday, Oct. 11 in the recital hall at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, and Sunday, Oct. 12 in the new Dougherty Valley Performing Arts Center in San Ramon.

One of the most in-demand clarinetists in Southern California, O'Connor has made music for more than 200 film scores, including the recent hits WALL-E and Hancock, plus most of 2007's blockbuster movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Spiderman 3, Die Hard 4 and Enchanted. Active in the commercial recording industry as well, O'Connor has performed, collaborated and recorded with performers as varied as Santana, Blue Man Group, Andrea Bocelli, Queen Latifah and Josh Groban.

LaRocca, Professor of Music at Cal State University East Bay, is the founder and artistic director of Composers, Inc., and an award-winning composer. His works have been performed by instrumental and choral ensembles worldwide, from the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., to the Seventh World Symposium on Choral Music in Kyoto, Japan.

Serving the county for over 35 years as its only chamber orchestra, the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra's opening concert, Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue, will be conducted by music director Timothy M. Smith. The orchestra will also play music by Beethoven, Stravinsky and Brahms. Tickets are available at the door.