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But on Thursday night, before an audience of about 100 in UA’s Holsclaw Hall, the 2022 festival kicked off with the world premiere of its third commissioned work.

And on Friday, Jan. 21, the hosted the impeccable soprano for the first of two concerts anchored by Mahler’s masterpiece Symphony No. 4 in G major.

Festival coordinator George Hanson told Thursday’s audience that despite losing a handful of events early on, including a Jan. 9 recital with soprano Ailyn Pérez and performances with and , the festival was still presenting 38 events through March 19.

At Thursday’s opening concert, Pulitzer Prize winning-composer was in the audience when mezzo-soprano performed Higdon’s “Summer Music� with the Grammy-nominated pianist . It was the third commission in the festival’s Wesley Green Composer Project.

Higdon, who lives in Philadelphia, was thinking more East Coast than punishing ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ summertime when she wrote about gathering blackberries and breathing in the sweet perfume of fresh-mowed grass.

But the warmth of Higdon’s music and the sentiments expressed in the texts certainly spoke to us. Higdon’s song cycle, based on poems written mostly by women including Higdon, took us through the emotions we feel in summertime — even in the sweltering heat of a ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ summer — rejuvenation, freedom and a sense of adventure.

Higdon’s music was all over the map emotionally — playful and light when Cooke, in a jazzy scat style, sang “ping, pang, pong� to emulate rain dropping on a tin roof and richly reminiscent of Great American Songbook style on “Summer Hue.�

While Cooke, who introduced herself Thursday night with stunning performances of Rossini’s “Joan of Arc� cantata and Berlioz’s wonderful “The Death of Ophelia,� was the center of attention, we couldn’t take our eyes or ears off Huang, who was able to summon from Higdon’s score the playfulness, pain, longing and romance the composer had intended.

Cooke closed Thursday’s concert with several songs that focused on children, including ‘s sweet “Night.�

On Friday, the TSO opened its “Mahler’s Vision of Paradise� concert with Price’s “Dances in the Canebrakes,� a lush work that borrowed influences and rhythms from spirituals. It was the first time the TSO has ever performed a work by Price, the first African-American female composer to have her work performed by a major orchestra and a vital American voice that is starting to be heard.

But the evening was truly all about the terrific soprano Cabell, making her ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ debut. As the orchestra, under the baton of Music Director José Luis Gomez, brought out the deeply expressive sentiments of Samuel Barber’s score, Cabell took her nuanced soprano to soaring, chill-inducing heights in “Knoxville: Summer of 1915â€� and was breathtaking in the final movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, which the orchestra performed with such precision and passion you found yourself leaning forward to hear every note.

The TSO’s “Mahler’s Vision of Paradiseâ€� repeats on Sunday, Jan. 23, at ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Music Hall.