Comprised of 17 leading soloists and chamber musicians of today’s younger generation (many of whom are principals in major American orchestras), this “exciting, conductor-less band of strings (The New Yorker) combines the power and expansiveness of a great orchestral ensemble with the personal involvement and spontaneity of chamber music. Of special note on this program is the Philadelphia premiere of Christopher Theofandis’s A Thousand Cranes, a symphony for strings and harp “inspired by the power of a child’s innocence to transcend human tragedy.”