Diversity and familiarity best describe the 2021-22 Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra season, which will kick off in September with a full orchestra and audience. Artistic advisor/conductor Bramwell Tovey described planning the season – the philharmonic's full return after the COVID-19 pandemic first shuttered, then minimized in-person shows – as a complex endeavor, and he worked to include the “familiar, intriguing and unusual.” “We always look at what has and hasn’t been done in a while, but, after a major event, the familiarity of masterpieces is something people are anxious to hear,” he noted, adding he tried to encapsulate new and classic into each performance.