ORONO – Anatole Wieck, University of Maine associate professor of music and UMaine Orchestra conductor, is looking forward to a concert at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 10, at Minsky Recital Hall, for several reasons.

First, the concert will present a passionate and powerful repertoire by the quintessentially classical composers -Russian Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Austrian Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and American Aaron Copland.

Secondly, it provides Wieck, who was born and raised in the former Soviet Union before emigrating to the United States, an opportunity to defy the former Russian government’s attempt to censor religious music.

And third, it will be a good concert for young people and others who are unsure whether they like classical music.

“This is a good concert for people who may not be familiar with classical music,” said Wieck. He has selected three major pieces to perform – the “Russian Easter Overture” by Rimsky-Korsakov, Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony 41 and Copland’s “John Henry.”

Performed the evening before Easter Sunday, “Russian Easter Overture,” which Wieck describes as “lyrical but very passionate in a spiritual sense,” involves the musical exchange between a priest and his congregation, and builds to a triumphant ending to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“To me, it’s very special,” Wieck said, “because I grew up in Russia and I had never heard this music. I didn’t know it existed. The government was trying to stamp out anything religious.”

The work, which is rarely performed, Wieck said, “is one of Rimsky-Korsakov’s greatest pieces. To me it is something the communists didn’t manage to stamp out, the spirituality.”

Rimsky-Korsakov also is known for his orchestral suite “Scheherazade” and “Flight of the Bumble Bee.”

Mozart’s Symphony 41, or “Jupiter,” named after the mythological king of the Roman gods, is significant because it represents the shifting of Mozart’s elegant style toward the more heroic, assertive style of the younger German composer, Ludwig von Beethoven, according to Wieck and the orchestra concertmaster, graduate student William Bell.

Wieck will give a brief explanation of the concert pieces before each one is played.

Admission for the concert is $6.