Guest conductor Elizabeth Stoyanovich leads the orchestra this weekend.

Bainbridge Orchestra’s second guest conductor of the season is using her opportunity to highlight soloists and unify the musicians.

“I wanted to get to know the players, to learn the group…and to build those relationships instead of bringing in a soloist,” said Elizabeth Stoyanovich, who holds the baton this weekend. “That’s where my focus is, learning who they are.”

When Stoyanovich came on board, she held sectional rehearsals, which promoted comment from the concertmaster.

Her reaction was, “Haven’t you done that before?” His reply was no.

Stoyanovich is the music director of the Bremerton Symphony Orchestra and the Butte, Mont., Symphony Orchestra, as well as the education conductor of the Fresno, Calif., Philharmonic Orchestra.

She was happy to be asked to guest conduct the Bainbridge Orchestra, as she lives on the island with her husband, Patrick, and their two children.

The orchestra’s previous full-time conductor, Sandi Schwarz, resigned last spring to move back to Mexico. The board decided to use this season as an audition period, bringing in Alan Futterman first, then Stoyanovich and David Upham in April to guest conduct a set of concerts each.

Having different conductors changes the complexion of the orchestra little by little, Stoyanovich said, adding “the orchestra reflects that.”

For her program, Stoyanovich selected Patrick Stoyanovich’s The Migrant Workers’ Prayer and Dream for strings; Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 (fourth movement only); Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite; and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K. 543.

“It’s a small orchestra with about 40 people,” Stoyanovich said. “We’re playing in a very intimate hall, and I chose a more salon-type concert (circa 18th century) where we are really unified.

“There is no concerto per se. We have plenty of solo parts, a quintet in the strings in the Pulcinella and in the woodwinds and brass, many exposed solos.”

Patrick Stoyanovich was inspired to write the Migrant Worker solo piano piece after seeing an exhibit of Dorothea Lange’s photography, which depicted migrant workers during the Depression.

Tchaikovsky loved this particular serenade, which rekindled his connections with the spirit of the 18th century in its scale patterns and Russian folk themes.

Stoyanovich told the musicians that the opening of the Tchaikovsky is an icy winter scene in Russia. The muted sound of strings appear from nowhere, but by colorful turns, the music becomes lively and dance-like. The serenade is well known as the musical backdrop of George Balanchine’s Four Temperaments ballet.

Inspired by Pergolesi’s 18th-century orchestrations for ballet, Stravinsky looked into his past when writing Pulcinella. The result shocked those who called him a revolutionary composer, but he continued in this vein, arranging more Pergolesi for chamber orchestra.

The Pulcinella title comes from a 1700s Italian character whom women love and men plot to kill. The suite performed now is from a 1974 revision arranged for the same small orchestra as the original ballet.

The Mozart Symphony No. 39 is “just a lovely symphony,” Stoyanovich said. “Tchaikovsky really admired Mozart’s work. You can hear that there’s a relationship between the two, even though they lived in different times…where these works came from and where they’re going.”

A perennial favorite, this is the first of Mozart’s last three symphonies, which he wrote in the space of seven weeks. Virtuosic and fast runs and passages in the first and fourth movements are at times exuberant, graceful and playful.

The middle second and third movements are dance-like and dainty in turn.

Violist Dorothy Foster plays the opening solo in the Stoyanovich tone poem for strings, which is beautiful in its starkness. The prayer of the migrants rises with the gossamer blend of weaving melodies from the different string sections, colored by the sound from the deep voices of the cellos and bass to the high sheen of the violins.

Foster said she feels privileged to be able to play under professional guest conductors with their different approaches.

“They have been respectful and accommodating,” she said. “This is a community orchestra, which is different for them.”

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Stringing along

Guest conductor Elizabeth Stoyanovich and the Bainbridge Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 11 and at 4 p.m. Feb. 12 at the Playhouse. A pre-concert chat starts the performance.

Tickets – $15 for adults and $9 for seniors and students – are available at the Playhouse box office; by calling 842-8569; or online at www.theplayhouse.org.