On your birthday, you might get someone with a karaoke-level voice crooning “Happy Birthday.” A state deserves better—say, a Philharmonic orchestra serenading it with Mendelssohn and Debussy.

If you don’t know what birthday gift to buy for a state—say, Nevada, celebrating its 150th this year, its sesquicentennial—your attendance at the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s Battle Born-Nevada Proud! concert at 7:30 p.m. January 18 at The Smith Center is a good start.

Conducted by onetime Las Vegas resident and UNR graduate (and current San Francisco Symphony conductor) Donato Cabrera, the concert will feature four works: Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Alina Ming Kobialka; Benjamin Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from his opera Peter Grimes; Equus for orchestra by Reno-raised and UNLV-schooled Eric Whitacre; and Claude Debussy’s La mer. (Tickets are $25-$94 at LVPhil.org.)

The concert launches the Philharmonic’s 2014 season. A talk by Cabrera at 6:45 p.m. will precede the performance.