The Butler County Symphony Orchestra will shake it, shake it, shake it baby for the first show of its 75th season, when they come together to get back to the 1960s and ’70s.

“The Classical Mystery Tour: A Tribute to the Beatles” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Butler Intermediate High School auditorium.

Beatles tunes from the moptop, screaming-teen era in the mid-1960s through the more ethereal songwriting of the Abbey Road album in 1969 will be played exactly as they were originally recorded, but with the backing of 36 musicians from the Butler County Symphony Orchestra.

“It adds tremendous depth to the music, to have an orchestra,” said John Furman, the symphony orchestra’s executive director.

Four Beatles look-alikes will portray John, Paul, George and Ringo, he said.

“The show came highly recommended and has been very popular for well over 20 years,” Furman said.

The Butler County-area musicians involved have been given their music, and will rehearse once with the “Beatles” before the show.

The setup is similar to the “Take Me Back to Chicago” show the symphony hosted Sept. 9 at the Big Butler Fairgrounds, when Butler symphony musicians played with Chicago co-founder and drummer, Danny Seraphine.

But Furman hopes everyone who thinks they might be interested in the Classical Mystery Tour gets a ticket to avoid the regret many felt over the Chicago show.

“All I heard about the Chicago concert was ‘I wish I had gone to see it,’” he said. “Don’t miss this one. It’s going to be different than anything you’ve probably seen before.”

Because of the expense incurred by the Butler symphony for such a show, only one concert will be performed, Furman said.

“Ticket sales only cover about 25% of producing a concert,” he said. “We depend on corporations, foundations and individuals to see the value of a professional symphony orchestra.”

Furman said it is very rare for a small town like Butler to have such a high-caliber symphony.

He hopes those who don’t normally attend Butler symphony concerts come out to see the Classical Mystery Tour to get a taste of the talent of local musicians.

He said strings, woodwinds and brass will play in the show.

“We’ll also have harp and piano along with percussion,” Furman said.

He also hopes those who attend will consider trying out a later Butler symphony concert.

Furman explained that to connect listeners with the music, the conductor offers a lecture 30 minutes before each regular concert to explain the composer’s reasoning behind the music they will hear.

“We are always looking to engage the public to help them understand the piece,” he said.

Furman said he has to smile when someone tells him they do not listen to classical music, as the genre can be heard in almost every movie and even in video games.

“And people think they have to wear a tuxedo to a symphony concert,” Furman said. “Most dress in comfortable clothes and that’s what we want. We want them to relax and enjoy the music.”

He said the Butler symphony offers three classical and three contemporary concerts per season.

Tickets for the Classical Mystery Tour are available online at butlersymphony.org, by stopping in the symphony office from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the corner of Main and East Diamond streets, or by calling the symphony office at 724-283-1402.

Furman said the Classical Mystery Tour was chosen as a special show to kick off the symphony’s tri-quadracentennial year.

He said the symphony has thrived for 75 years for a few reasons.

“I think they had some people who had a vision and were willing to financially support it,” Furman said.

The organizations that have generously supported the symphony over the span of more than seven decades also allowed the symphony to remain viable in the long run, he said.

Vince Sanzotti, a retired Butler High School music teacher who retired from the symphony last year after playing clarinet for 61 years, fondly recalls the man who originated the Butler symphony in 1948.

“Edward Roncone started it,” Sanzotti said. “He was a Butler Junior High music teacher who was wounded in World War II.”

The first meeting of the newly formed symphony orchestra was held in the basement of Covenant United Presbyterian Church on East Jefferson Street, Sanzotti said.

The group eventually moved their meetings to the second floor of the city building, he said.

Sanzotti said most of the musicians, who were string players, came from the Butler area.

“Many wind players he was able to get from the Pittsburgh Symphony,” he said. “They were always interested in making extra money.”

Sanzotti said Roncone scheduled concerts so as to not coincide with rehearsals and concerts of the Pittsburgh Symphony so he could hang onto his commuting musicians.

“I was in junior high at the time, in 1948,” Sanzotti said. “I remember him very well.”

He said Roncone even helped his young student get into college so he could pursue his musical passion.

“He took me to Carnegie Tech, which is now Carnegie Mellon. That’s where I went to school,” Sanzotti said. “He took me down there to audition.”

He said the symphony’s first concert was held at the former Butler High School building, which was the red brick building across North McKean Street from St. Paul Roman Catholic Church.

Sanzotti said Roncone conducted the symphony until 1961, when he moved to Clarion to teach at Clarion University.

He said while the symphony has enjoyed excellent musicians through the years, they are not the reason the symphony has survived while many others have failed.

“The biggest reason why they have survived is the people involved in the association,” Sanzotti said. “It was run very effectively and very honestly and that is what kept the orchestra going.”

He said coordinating concerts, publicity, fundraising and selling tickets are the functions that keep a symphony alive.

“Those are the people who keep it going and that’s what has been strongest in Butler,” Sanzotti said.

He said regional symphonies many times do not offer pay for musicians, which Butler always has done.

“It’s not a lot, but it’s some remuneration for their efforts,” Sanzotti said.

Sanzotti’s legacy will live on at the Butler symphony through his daughter, Christina Savannah, who plays bassoon in the orchestra.