There are all sorts of “journeys” in life.

Some are arduous: my wife and I putting off a trip to the grocery until we’ve been reduced to eating the dust balls under the couch. Others are more pleasurable: my wife and I going on a vacation to the Los Zetas Cartel’s Museum of Fun.

Perhaps the best journeys are musical, and the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra will compellingly and thematically explore that concept Saturday in their latest concert at the Garde Arts Center in New London.

Under the baton of music director/conductor Toshi Shimada, the ECSO will explore Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major (the “pastoral” symphony), Gustav Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Richard Strauss’s Don Juan and Salvatore di Vittorio’s Sea Fanfare on a Theme by Monteverde.

The evening’s guest artist is mezzo-soprano Ivy Walz, who will perform the bittersweet texts from the Mahler work.

Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Garde Arts Center, 325 State St., New London; $15-$71; (860) 444-7373, ectsymphony.com.