December can be a lonely time for a classical pianist.

“I hardly ever play in a Christmas concert,” David Allen Wehr said. “There’s no piano in ‘Nutcracker,’ no piano in ‘Messiah,’ not a lot of Christmas solo (works).”

Wehr, the Jack W. Geltz Distinguished Piano Chair at Duquesne University’s Mary Pappert School of Music in Pittsburgh, will join the Youngstown String Quartet for a holiday concert Saturday at Powers Auditorium.

Wehr said he was invited to perform by Youngstown Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Rachel Robinson Stegeman, who also teaches at Duquesne, as part of a series of small-ensemble concerts put together by the orchestra after COVID-19 restrictions were loosened to allow limited-capacity indoor performances.

To comply with current guidelines, attendance will be limited to a maximum of 300 people socially distanced on the main floor on Powers Auditorium. The concert will be only about an hour long with no intermission. Overture Restaurant and the concession areas will be closed.

Wehr will perform two movements from Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet and a medley of Hanukkah songs with the quartet as well as jazz arrangements by Joe Utterback of “Greensleeves” and “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” The quartet also will play a mix of classical and pops selections.

Since winning the gold medal at the 1987 Santander International Piano Competition in Spain, Wehr had performed in more than 30 countries in Europe, North and South America and the Far East. He’s been a soloist with the London Symphony, National Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, Houston Symphony and New Zealand Symphony, and he’s released more than a dozen albums, including the complete Beethoven Sonata Cycle.

Saturday’s concert will be his Youngstown debut and only his second performance in front of an audience since the pandemic started.

“I did a solo recital in Baltimore that just so happened to be the first day that churches were able to open at all,” he said. “The cap was 50 people.”

He’s not worried about playing for a small audience in a theater that can hold about 2,500 people.

“Any classical performer, at some point they’ve played for 20 people in a hall that seats 2,000,” he said. “It doesn’t make any difference. When a performer sees that red light go on, either an actual red light or a metaphorical one, you’re going to play your best, whether it’s one person or 5,000 people.”

If you go …

WHAT: “Happy Holidays” — Youngstown String Quartet and David Allen Wehr, piano

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Powers Auditorium, 260 W. Federal St., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: $30 adults, $25 senior citizens and $15 students. Tickets must be purchased in advance online at www.youngstownsymphony.com or by calling the administrative office between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekdays at 330-744-4269.