For its first concerts of the New Year, the CCCO and Music Director Geoffrey Gallegos, present Theme and Variations, an exploration of how three composers utilize theme and variation form; a formal compositional device by which a theme is stated and then repeated in altered form through a metamorphosis of melody, rhythm, harmony, counterpoint, timbre, orchestration, or any combination of these. Sometimes the theme is an original theme of the composer (Stravinsky) as in the central movement of his neo-classic Octet for Winds, and other times it's the theme of another composer (Tchaikovsky's song Legend from his Sixteen Children's Songs, Op.54) as in Anton Arensky's Variations for Strings, and (Haydn) in Brahms's Variations on Haydn's St. Anthony Chorale.