Superstar violinist Sarah Chang and flute legend Sir James Galway are among the highlights of the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra’s second season, which is chock-full of star soloists performing some of the most beloved works in the classical music repertoire.

Season ticket packages go on sale Monday for the first half of the 2013-2014 season, which orchestra president Steve Monder succinctly described as "great."

"This is A-list stuff," he said. "There’s a lot of favorites back on here, a lot of diversity in the people and the compositions."

All the soloists are of international repute and are returning to Hawaii to perform with the new orchestra, which debuted last year after being reconstituted from the defunct Hono­lulu Symphony. They’ll perform six programs, with three of the programs performed twice. A second series of concerts, stretching from March until June, is in the planning stages, Monder said.

Leading the orchestra will be some of the rising stars in the conducting world, including Jahja Ling, the Indonesian-Chinese maestro of the San Diego Symphony, who will conduct the opening concerts. "He’s the first Chinese conductor that’s conducted all the major orchestras in the United States," Monder said. Maestro Tito Munoz, who’s worked with the "Big Five" Cleveland Orchestra among many others, and rising Canadian star Jean-Marie Zeitouni will also take the podium.

Chang, as a child, was described by Yehudi Menuhin as "the most wonderful, perfect, ideal violinist I had ever heard." She’s won accolades not only for her substantial musical career, but for her leadership qualities, receiving honors from the World Economic Forum and Newsweek magazine.

"I understand she played here as a young phenom (in 2002, 2004 and 2007), and now she’s a mature phenom," Monder said. Chang will perform Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26, the piece that first brought her public attention when she performed it at age 4. Her 2009 recording of the work reached No. 7 on the classical charts.

Soloists for the rest of the season are all established favorites among local audiences, such as pianist Cecile Licad, performing Rachmaninoff’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 2, and Joyce Yang, who’s given several enchanting performances here in recent years. She’ll perform Tchaikovsky’s popular Piano Concerto No. 1.

Conductor JoAnn Falletta, well known to island music fans, will lead the orchestra for James Galway, an icon in the music world with more than 300 million albums sold.

The groundbreaking banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck will be performing his own concerto in an all-American concert conducted by Michael Stern, son of the legendary violinist Isaac Stern.

The final concert, featuring Beethoven’s famous Ninth Symphony and its "Ode to Joy," will bring in Andrew Litton, conductor of several Grammy-winning recordings. Monder said he is planning to draw on local talent for the lead vocalists.

"I heard a couple of choral performers last year here, and I thought, ‘They’re good. Why not?’" he said.

Monder said he hopes that the early notice of the concerts will help ticket sales. Last year the season was announced and then opened just a month later, resulting in Sunday prescription concerts far outdrawing the secondary performances. Though the concerts were well received, the orchestra finished the year about $400,000 in the red, a deficit made up by symphony board members.

Monder expressed guarded optimism for this season, which is projected to have a $3.3 million budget. All the concerts will be on Saturdays and Sundays except for the last, which will be the Monday before Christmas Eve. Weekend concerts seem to be preferred by orchestra followers, he said.

"We have a long way to go," he said, adding that the orchestra is planning school and community programs. "This is just a start."