The highlight of the upcoming concert by the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra — at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Lobero Theatre — will be the world premiere of a work by celebrated Taiwanese composer Gordon Chin.

In the concert, conducted by maestro Heiichiro Ohyama, international cello superstar Felix Fan will solo in the first performance of Chin’s Romance for Cello and Orchestra. Fan also will play the lead in the jazzy Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra (1980) by the late Austrian composer Friedrich Gulda. To close the evening, Ohyama will lead his band in a performance of Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67 by Ludwig Beethoven.

Chin was born in Taiwan and earned a doctor of musical arts degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. He is prolific, numbering among his compositions four symphonies, a cantata, a violin concerto, a piano concerto, several choral works and chamber works — including five percussion quartets — as well as works for various solo instruments.

He serves as music director of the Yin-Qi Chorus and the Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, and is on the faculty of the Taiwan National Normal University. I haven’t heard any of his works — and I never rely on someone else’s characterization of music — so I can’t offer much as to what to expect. Perhaps the presence of five percussion quartets in his oeuvre gives us a hint.

Gulda was born in Austria, died there 70 years later and, except when on one of his world tours as a pianist, spent most of his time within 50 miles of where he was born. As a pianist, he was famous for his interpretations of Beethoven, though his playing of Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Debussy and Ravel also was respected.

Gulda was a fearless explorer in his own compositions. He discovered jazz in the 1950s, collaborated on an album with Chick Corea and later branched into pop. Emerson, Lake & Palmer recorded one of his pieces. He also wrote a set of variations on The Doors’ Light My Fire. His Cello Concerto is jazz-influenced and is scored for two string basses, one of them a jazz bass, a guitarist and specially placed rows of winds and brass in addition to the cello soloist, with a drum set instead of the usual orchestral percussionist.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is so familiar to all music lovers that some of it comes across as self-parody. Nevertheless, it is a grand and exciting work.

The Chamber Orchestra will repeat its program at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Broad Stage in Santa Monica. Tickets are $42 and $47 for the Lobero performance, and can be purchased by calling 805.963.0761. Student Rush tickets are $10 with ID, and will go on sale at 7:15 p.m.

— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.