With the first weekend of The Mahler Project successfully under our belts and behind us, you probably think we're ready for a well-deserved break, right?

Not on your life.

As followers of the festival know, The Mahler Project is just getting started. In fact, after an amazing opening weekend featuring Mahler 4, "Songs of a Wayfarer" and a stirring Thomas Hampson rendition of Mahler's Rheinlegendchen for an encore on Sunday night, this week is even more jam-packed with Mahler-related goodness.

Here's what's happening this week:

• On Wednesday, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela arrives here in LA and gets right to work on Friday - the first combined LA Phil/SBSOV rehearsal for Mahler 8 (The Symphony of a Thousand, of course) is that morning.
• Thursday night marks the beginning of the second weekend of Mahler Project concerts, as Gustavo and the LA Phil present Mahler 1 and the Adagio from the incomplete Mahler 10. Mahler scholar Gilbert Kaplan also delivers an open-to-the-public Upbeat Live pre-concert talk on all three nights of the program.
• Friday night brings an abbreviated version of this same program as part of our Casual Friday series, which features opening remarks from an orchestra member (in this case, it's cellist Barry Gold who will be warming up the crowd), as well as a post-concert Q&A from Gold, Gustavo and LA Phil President and CEO Deborah Borda. The full program is presented one last time on Saturday night.
• On Saturday morning, the SBSOV gets in on the action as the orchestra, led by current Dudamel Conducting Fellow Joshua Dos Santos, presents a Symphonies for Youth program entitled "Mahler's World". Featuring a family-friendly take on the music of Mahler, "Mahler's World" runs again the following Saturday, also at 11am.
• And finally on Sunday, the SBSOV, led by Gustavo and joined by soprano Miah Persson, mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, plays Mahler 2.

Wow.