The Colorado Symphony has announced its long-awaited return to normal concert operations with a 2021-22 season featuring 49 titles across 90 concerts beginning Sept. 17 at downtown’s Boettcher Concert Hall.

Among the highlights will be an April 2 concert appearance by Leslie Odom, Jr., who was nominated for a 2021 Academy Award for his performance as Sam Cooke in the film “One Night in Miami” and played Aaron Burr in the original cast of Broadway’s “Hamilton.”

Denver native and five-time Grammy Award-winning jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves, niece of former Colorado Symphony bassist Charlie Burrell, returns to the Boettcher on February 19. Broadway star Sierra Boggess, like Reeves a graduate of Denver’s George Washington High School, will sing music from Andrew Lloyd Webber on Sept. 25.

Opening weekend will take place Sept. 17-19 with Grammy-winning pianist Emanuel Ax joining the orchestra on Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto.

Grammy and Emmy Award-winning composer Danny Elfman will come to Denver for a week-long residency in January that will include a performance with his Berlin Philharmonic Piano Quartet, two performances of “Danny Elfman’s Music from the Films of Tim Burton” and one public forum.

The popular “Movie at the Symphony” series returns with six films, including “Elf,” “A Muppet Christmas Carol” and “Fantasia.”

Six “alternative” concerts will include “The Music of Queen,” “Beethoven v. Coldplay” and “The Times They Are A-Changin’: The Words and Music of Bob Dylan.” Colorado’s own DeVotchKa returns with its sixth CSO collaboration and first-ever holiday symphonic concert event on Dec. 16.

Family concerts will include the “Halloween Spooktacular,” “Drums of the World” and “The Lift Every Voice Youth Concert.” The holiday concert slate includes “A Colorado Christmas,” “Holiday Brass” and “A Night in Vienna on New Year’s Eve.”

The season will feature a wide variety of composers, conductors and guest artists. The music of five women composers will be featured including Clarise Assad, Gabriela Lena Frank, Joan Tower, Jessie Montgomery and Florence Price — the trailblazing African American composer who was the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra.

Among other notable guest artists are vocalist Capathia Jenkins; violinists Karen Gomyo, Sandy Cameron and Simone Porter; saxophonist Steven Banks; and pianists Natasha Paremski, Joyce Yang, Awadagin Pratt and Ingrid Fliter.

The CSO said farewell to five-year Maestro Brett Mitchell on June 30. This season will be led by a lineup including CSO Resident Conductor Christopher Dragon as well as guests Peter Oundjian, Marin Alsop, Andrew Litton and other renowned conductors.

“Well over a full calendar year will have passed since we have been able to entertain our patrons with live music in Boettcher Concert Hall,” said CEO Jerome H. Kern. “We are elated to present a return season that showcases the virtuosity, skill and musicianship of Colorado’s only full-time professional orchestra.”

Single tickets to all concerts will be available to the general public starting Sept. 1. For a full schedule and ticket information, go to coloradosymphony.org/tickets or call 303-623-7876.