More pops, fewer Odysseys and a celebration of President Lincoln's 200th birthday are on the docket for the Akron Symphony's 2008-09 season.

The orchestra will give seven concerts in its Classic series at E.J. Thomas Hall, six of them conducted by music director Christopher Wilkins and one led by guest conductor Daniel Hege. The season opens Sept. 20 and runs through May 2, 2009.

The biggest initiative of the season is the Lincoln concert, which will be performed on the president's birth date, Feb. 12. Photo-choreographer James Westwater is back, this time to create images from the Civil War era that will be projected during the concert. Because the Akron Symphony has teamed

with Wilkins' other orchestra, the Orlando Philharmonic, to co-commission Westwater, both organizations will contribute images.

In Akron, the Summit County Historical Society is on the job. In Orlando, a local history center recently completed a special exhibition on the Civil War and Lincoln, so images are ready to go, Wilkins said in a recent phone conversation from Orlando.

Westwater will meld the images to Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, Philip Glass' idiosyncratically titled CIVIL warS: Two Intermezzos; and Charles Ives' Decoration Day. The Dona Nobis Pacem of Vaughan Williams and the Ashokan Farewell by Jay Ungar (featured in Ken Burns' documentary The Civil War) complete the program.

''The two presentations may differ a little, because Florida was in the Confederacy,'' Wilkins said. ''We may have two different looks at it, not entirely different but with some different emphasis.''

Symphony patron Robert Weisberger has been working with the orchestra to plan the Bernstein/Mahler program, which explores the Jewish influence in the two composers' music. The orchestra is planning a collaborative talk with music at Temple Israel that will discuss the cantorial tradition and the chants that are used in Bernstein's Jeremiah Symphony. In Mahler's case, Wilkins said, the Jewish influence was more cultural, expressed through the folk music, such as Jewish klezmer music, that Mahler absorbed.

Violinist Stefan Jackiw will play the Sibelius Violin Concerto on opening night, Sept. 20. He's a performer Wilkins has known about for years and finally been able to book, he said — ''He's a deep artist and a great human being, which shines through the playing.''

Pianist Orli Shaham had to cancel her performance on the Akron Symphony's 2007-08 series, due to pregnancy concerns (she had twins), but she has rescheduled for Oct. 18, when she will play the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2.

Northeast Ohio-born Orion Weiss' fame has spread far beyond his roots here, but he'll return on Nov. 22 to perform Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365, with Anna Polonsky.

Guest conductor Daniel Hege first came to Wilkins' attention when he was a student at the University of Utah and Wilkins was associate conductor of the Utah Symphony. The two kept in touch as Hege progressed, and Wilkins began inviting him to guest-conduct when he was at his previous position as music director in San Antonio. Hege will lead the March 14, 2009, concert featuring Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

In the annual concert spotlighting the Akron Symphony Chorus, the ensemble will join the orchestra to sing the Brahms German Requiem on May 2, 2009. The organization's new chorus director, Hugh Floyd, will prepare them for the Brahms as well as for an all-chorus concert on Nov. 2 at St. Bernard Catholic Church. Floyd will also lead the Akron Symphony and Chamber Choir in three Messiah concerts.

Gospel Meets Symphony, always well attended, will continue for its 16th year, with a new guest director, on Feb. 7, 2009.

The orchestra will discontinue its Music at the Elms chamber music series in 2008-09, due to declining attendance, but has added a second pops concert after seeing the success of the event featuring trumpeter Byron Stripling last October. In addition to the holiday pops event it has had for some years, it will offer a Broadway concert on Oct. 3 and a Valentine's Day event with Steve Lippia, a vocalist who will sing music of Frank Sinatra.

Most orchestras that do pops concerts find that the audience is different from its classical listeners, Wilkins said. ''Once the pops series is up and running it should be a net gain for us,'' he said.

In another bow to economics, the orchestra has cut one of its Odyssey concerts (formerly the family series), moving from three to two. ''We don't want to give up the Odyssey (concerts) but we're having trouble drawing people in,'' Wilkins said.

Unlike this season's Odyssey programs, which two times out of three are scheduled back-to-back on Sundays following Saturday concerts of the Classic series, the programs will fall on Sundays of other weekends. The scheduling had been designed to save the orchestra money on producing the Odyssey concerts, but cut into attendance, said marketing and public relations director Jason Swank.

The two Odyssey concerts will be led by Christopher James Lees, who next year will be promoted from assistant to associate conductor. Lees will continue to lead the Akron Youth Symphony.