Waltz in the New Year

If you managed to forget your New Year's resolutions in that beery haze between the ball dropping in Times Square and that last, slurred chorus of "Auld Lang Syne" in the wee hours of the morning, allow us to suggest at least one new one: This year, I will stop being a drunken Philistine and start gettin' cultured up.

And guess what? You can begin your quest for artistic refinement on the first evening of the new year by attending the Salute to Vienna at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. Inspired by the New Year's concert of the Vienna Philharmonic, which is broadcast every year to an audience of approximately 1.2 billion people from the Golden Hall of Vienna's Musikverein, the Salute to Vienna is in its fifth year at the Kravis Center.

The program will feature Viennese Strauss specialist Manuel Hernández Silva leading the Strauss Symphony of America. Also on the bill are soprano Livia Galambos from the Budapest State Opera, tenor Thomas Sigwald from the Vienna State Opera, and waltzing dancers from Ballet Florida, who will be dressed in 19th-century costumes.

The concert is just one of 19 that will be held in cities across North America, from here to San Diego. More than 50,000 people are expected to attend all the shows. For those of you who need more than a day to recover from New Year's Eve, there will also be a performance January 2 at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.