Violinist Vadim Repin is next month's guest for New York Philharmonic Offstage, an occasional series of discussions and performances sponsored by the orchestra. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, November 7 in the third floor performance space of the Lincoln Triangle branch of Barnes & Noble, at Broadway and West 65th St. in Manhattan.

Jeff Spurgeon of New York radio station WQXR-FM will introduce Repin and moderate the discussion portion of the event, after which the violinist will be available to sign copies of his recent recordings.

Repin will be the New York Philharmonic's featured soloist that week, performing Edouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole with the very same Stradivarius instrument on which Pablo Sarasate premiered the work in Paris in 1875. Philharmonic Associate Conductor Xian Zhang will be on the podium for this program, which also includes Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and a brief orchestral work by Chinese-American composer Huang Ruo. Information and tickets are available at www.nyphil.org.

By Matthew Westphal