Sunday, when superstar pianist Lang Lang joins the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the concert will hark back to the golden age of classical music. The music is Tchaikovsky. The ambience, formal.

Friday, the atmosphere will be completely different.

For Friday’s concert, the brains at the BPO looked for inspiration to the Jeans and Beer concerts the orchestra held years ago. They created an evening of Latin music that is not only a concert but a complete night out.

“We wanted an informal concert, where people could hear the orchestra but enjoy a happy hour and food and socializing before and after,” says Associate Conductor Matthew Kraemer, who is conducting both shows.

Admission to the Friday event is relatively inexpensive. Reserved seating is $35, and general admission tickets are $20.

The fun starts at 5:30 p. m., when a party in the Mary Seaton Room will feature live music by Wendell Rivera. The bar will be open.

Impressively, stylish Lloyd’s Taco Truck has promised to pull up. And there will be opportunity to work off those tacos –with dancers from Buffalo’s Latin American Institute teaching basic merengue, salsa and tango.

Carlos Ossa of the institute is excited about the collaboration –the group’s first partnering with the BPO.

“We saw a great opportunity for us to show our music and culture,” Ossa says.

About 10 dancers will be on

hand. “They are teachers, too,” he stresses. “They know how to teach.”

Ossa adds that attendees will have the chance to win free dance classes at the Institute.

Dance is a central part of life in Latin countries, he explains. “Music always is a powerful connection between countries.”

For the concert itself, which begins at 7 p. m., Kraemer has chosen a mix that ranges from “West Side Story” to tangos by Astor Piazzolla.

A group of numbers by Santana, including “Oye Como Va” and “Evil Ways,” should wow the pop fans. “They’re not bad arrangements,” Kraemer promises. “This has a solid percussion part. It’s well-written for orchestra.”

No Latin concert is complete without “Tico-Tico,” and though Kraemer says the BPO owns two versions of the song, the orchestra rented the arrangement by Hollywood Bowl legend Carmen Dragon.

“It’s the gold standard, the classic sound of that Hollywood era,” Kraemer says. “This is what the orchestra always does when it does ‘Tico-Tico.’ We always rent this one.”

After the concert, the action shifts back to the Mary Seaton Room, and the evening roars on.

Kraemer hopes to plan more relaxed evenings like this one.

“This kind of format is a little unorthodox,” he says. “Many orchestras do happy hour concerts, to attract a crowd that wouldn’t be walking in the door.”

He likes the idea of planning another concert around a movie — “Pirates of the Caribbean,” perhaps, or “Casablanca,” or a Hitchcock flick.

“I’d love people to be able to bring in their drinks, like they do at the Boston Pops,” he muses.

“Things change and you can’t become satisfied with the status quo. You have to try something that might be a little bit different.”

mkunz@buffnews.comnull