I vividly remember my very first circus experience. It was the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus three-ring big-top circus.

Everything was so colorful and the acrobatic acts were so spectacular and engaging. I was entranced from the very first moment the show began.

A circus just wouldn't be as exciting if you didn't have some great music to go with it. Heart-warming melodies, toe-tapping rhythms, and fast, furious musical passages show off the skill of the orchestra as well as the circus performer.

Enter into the scene "Cirque de la Symphonie," a wonderful circus show that is set to live classical music performed by a full symphony orchestra. At 8 p.m. Feb. 14 and 3 p.m. Feb. 15, we will be bringing the circus to Miller Symphony Hall in downtown Allentown for a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend set of concerts with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra.

Enjoy some of your favorite classical pieces of music like the "Dance of the Comedians" from Smetana's "The Bartered Bride" or the "Danse of the Buffoons" by Rimsky-Korsakov. Throw in some selections from Bizet's "Carmen," Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake Ballet" and Dvorak"s "The Carnival Overture" and you have a concert of upbeat, engaging music.

Cirque de la Symphonie is one of the premiere circus groups that tours with symphony orchestras all over the United States. They will bring performers that juggle and do all sorts of contortions. Some will even hang on colorful streams of cloth high above the orchestra as we play pieces like "Danse Macabre" by Saint-Saens and "Capriccio Espagnol" by Rimsky-Korsakov.

A circus is only as good as its performers and the ones we are bringing to you for this show are first-class. Aerial artist Alexander Streltsov won the gold medal in a competition among international cirque artists at the prestigious Festival Mondial Du Cirque De L'Avenir in Paris and worked with famed cirque choreographer Pavel Brun and producer Valentin Gneushev when he was only 12, performing on Broadway at the Gershwin Theater.

His aerial partner, Christine Van Loo, is a seven-time consecutive National Champion, Female Olympic Athlete of the Year and Athlete of the Decade in acrobatic gymnastics. She was inducted into the USSA (acro-gymnastics) Hall of Fame and the World Acrobatics Society Gallery of Honor.

Juggler Vladimir Tsarkov provides a spell-binding performance with combinations of mime and juggling feats. He is a veteran of Circus Circus, Cirque Ingenieux and Cirque de la Symphonie performances and won the gold medal at the Cirque de Demain International Festival in France.

He is joined by his wife, Elena Tsarkov, the "Lady in White," a ribbon dancer and contortionist, who was a first-place winner of the prestigious National Russian Circus Festival.

Rounding out the show we have gymnast, Vitalii Buza, who has starred in productions at Sea World, Universal Studios and Walt Disney World, excelling in multiple cirque acts, such as duo hand-balancing, straps, Cyr wheel, spinning cube, Chinese pole and the Russian bar.

There's also Aleksandr Deev, who performed in the Cirque Dreams productions at Bush Gardens and Six Flags parks, specializing in the spinning cube and the Cyr wheel.

I personally can't think of a more enjoyable way to celebrate Valentine's Day than to attend an Allentown Symphony Orchestra concert combined with the acrobatic acts of world-class circus performers in Cirque de la Symphonie. Just like I remember my very first circus performance that I attended when I was a child, I know that this will be a very unique experience and one that you will remember for a lifetime.

Diane Wittry is Music Director-Conductor of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director (USA), International Cultural Exchange Program for Classical Musicians, Sarajevo Philharmonic, Bosnia; and author, "Beyond the Baton" and "Baton Basics" (both, Oxford University Press).

Concert tickets: Miller Symphony Hall Box Office, 23 N. Sixth St., Allentown; allentownsymphony.org; 610-432-6715