Next weekend's Lancaster Symphony Orchestra concert at the Fulton Opera House will be filled with warmth and laughter to ward off the winter blues. Its cheerful program includes Mendelssohn's dazzling Violin Concerto, Beethoven's Symphony No. 8, one of his happiest works, and the ever-playful "Toy Symphony."

As a bonus, the concert will open with the presentation of the symphony's 51st annual Composer's Award to George Tsontakis.

An alumnus of Juilliard and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, he has had his works performed all over the world, winning numerous prizes including the coveted $200,000 Grawemeyer Award in 2005 for his Violin Concerto No. 2.

In a telephone interview, the 60-year-old New Yorker said he played the violin in his high school orchestra and knew he wanted to become a composer after hearing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 16 and Stravinsky's "The Firebird."

"I just remember saying, 'Wow, can I do that?' And I started to write music."

Tsontakis puts his life into his compositions.

"I want to tell people my own story and promptings, so it could be very emotional, and it could be a sense of what's remarkable to me."

Mysticism is important, too. Tsontakis said his compositions don't have motifs or melodies, but signals, as each instrument adds its own layer to the colors in the orchestra.

Tsontakis will conduct his 15-minute composition "Laconika" (2010) during the upcoming concert weekend. The title is a multiple play on words: It contains LACO, the acronym for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, which commissioned the piece; and alludes to Laconia, the capital of Sparta in Greece; which in turn alludes to the terms "spartan" and "laconic," which can describe something that is concise, which is exactly what Tsontakis set out to compose.

Tsontakis said "Laconika" consists of five distinct, bite-size musical ideas, which form a natural shape. The first section, "Alarming," wakes you up. He said it gradually builds to the central, heartfelt fourth movement, "Laconicrimosa" (a tribute to Mozart's famous "Lacrimosa"), and ends with "Twilight," which just floats away.

Tsontakis said he never writes for applause because many of his works end quietly and "applause is a sonic eraser to the beautiful dot, dot ending." He recalled that when he once told an audience this, a woman shouted out, "Well, do you want us to clap at the end or not?" He replied if she wished she could applaud the performers, who deserve to be recognized.

No doubt Tsontakis would identify with Felix Mendelssohn, whose 27-minute violin concerto (1844), which is next on the program, was written to be played without a break between movements. Mendelssohn did this to stop audiences from their then-customary practice of applauding after each movement and interrupting the spellbinding flow of the music. And spellbinding it is. The concerto is generally regarded as one of the greatest violin concertos of all time.

The soloist will be Lancaster Symphony's acting concertmaster, Netanel Draiblate, who said it's his favorite. Although he's been performing the concerto since he was 15, he said he plays it slightly differently each time.

"Our music changes because it's a reflection of who we are," Draiblate said, "and so things sound differently, not notewise, but interpretationwise."

Even so, there will be some new notes next week during the cadenza in the first movement, when the orchestra is silent and the soloist plays alone for two or three minutes. Draiblate said he has a choice of performing the cadenza Mendelssohn wrote or coming up with his own. He's decided to play one he's written himself. Draiblate said this is perfectly acceptable. "Since it's a cadenza, it's not considered altering the music. It's more an improvisation."

The second half of the program begins with the lighthearted nine-minute "Toy Symphony." Its disputed authorship is a toss up between Mozart's father, Leopold, and Franz Joseph Haydn. No matter. It's a playful bit of fun with an assortment of toy trumpets, drums, a rattle and a triangle, plus cuckoo and nightingale whistles. There will be direct audience participation, too.

"We auctioned off the opportunity to be a soloist with the Lancaster Symphony on the toys," Maestro Stephen Gunzenhauser said.

The Beethoven is another cheerful piece. Lodged between the powerful Seventh and superb Ninth, the Symphony No. 8 (1812) is often overlooked in the Beethoven oeuvre.

The composer himself had a fondness for the work, and when asked why the Eighth was less popular than the Seventh, he is said to have replied with a twinkle in his eye, "Because the Eighth is so much better."

Gunzenhauser said he personally cannot compare the value of one of Beethoven's symphonies against another, but described it as the happiest of his works. "It has an ebullience and exuberance that is wonderful," he said.

Lancaster Symphony Orchestra opens its "Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Papa Mozart" concert weekend at 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, at Fulton Opera House, 12 N. Prince St., in downtown Lancaster, with performances to follow at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. For ticket information, visit lancastersymphony.org or call 397-7452.