Known for promoting Mexican culture and identity through their music, the State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico will perform at 7:30 p.m. at Stephens Auditorium.

For more than 40 years, the State Symphony of Mexico has aimed to promote music as a means of union and identification among Mexicans. Based in the city of Toluca, Mexico, the orchestra has traveled to Europe, Asia and North America for numerous performances with great success with audiences and critics.

Music director and conductor Enrique Bátiz has been described as a passionate and enthusiastic artist and is one of the most famous orchestra conductors in Latin America. Now leading the State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Bátiz has led more than 500 symphony orchestras around the world. Batiz was also a guest conductor for England’s Royal Philharmonic, of which he has over 41 recordings.

Performing with the symphony, Pianist Irina Chistakova has been a regular guest soloist with the State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico since 2009. Widely renowned as a child prodigy, Chistakova was born in Moscow and was admitted into the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatoire at the age of six, and has toured internationally since she was 11 years old.

The program, which is subject to change, is as follows:

Enrique Granados: Three Spanish Dances

Manuel de Falla: Noches en los Jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain)

Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 3 in F Major, Op. 90

Thirty minutes prior to the show, Jeffery Prater, professor emeritus at Iowa State, will present insights about the program as part of the Celebrity Café preview. Celebrity Café is located on the north side ground floor of Stephens Auditorium and is free to all ticket holders.

Tickets for the show are $26 for ISU students and additionally range between $24, $39, $51 and $63 for adults. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster and can be purchased from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at the Stephens Auditorium ticket office.

For more information about the show and for video and audio previews, visit the Iowa State Center’s Web Page for the State Symphony of Mexico and the orchestra’s website.