Apologies in advance for cross-posting, but I hope everyone’s well – and thriving!
I just wanted to announce the start of a very special five-county, seven-concert “tour” of my Mariposa Symphony Orchestra, in commemoration of this year’s 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service. http://www.mariposaartscouncil.org/mariposa-symphony-orchestra/ My “Our Nation’s Nature” is a concert-length symphonic cycle of four movements, each celebrating a particular “outdoors” anniversary of 2014-2016, culminating in this year’s NPS celebrations. The piece was awarded a generous, major California Arts Council grant to help defray the costs of our tour; the tour and piece are also official “events” of the NPS commemorations. This is a pretty big deal for our humble orchestra (and its not-often humble founder!) as well as for the entire Yosemite region here in the Sierra Nevada of California. We begin this weekend with concerts here in the tiny town of Mariposa this Saturday followed by a concert in Yosemite National Park on Sunday; that second concert will be introduced by Yosemite Superintendent Don Neubacher and there will be various upper-echelon dignitaries from the NPS present, too. We’re the only symphony orchestra in the 150+year history of Yosemite National Park to have been permitted to play in the park and have had annual concerts there for the past decade. I won’t bore you further; full details are on our website at the link above - including my program notes re: each of those four (independent, yet thematically-linked) movements and background on this tour. The orchestra, incidentally: consists of pro and amateur musicians ranging from in age pre-teen to their 80s. They travel from eight counties for rehearsals and performances (which really means quite a bit considering the huge geographic area represented) and even a few current and retired NPS rangers and other employees have been members of the MSO from our beginnings in 2002. If you’re in the neck of our (literal) woods for the first five concerts now through May 14, or for the grand finale of two FINAL performances on the weekend of August 20/21, PLEASE stop in and say hi. And no, I’m not divulging the location of that very last concert – on Sunday, August 21 – because I’ve promised Don I wouldn’t until later this summer. But believe me: it’s a DOOZY! Best, Les Marsden (209) 966-6988 (H) (559) 708-6027 (Limited-reception cell) 7145 Snyder Creek Road Mariposa, CA 95338-9641 National Park Service Centennial Ambassador Board Director, Yosemite Gateway Partners (YGP) President, Mariposa County Arts Council, Incorporated Board Director, Economic Development Corporation of Mariposa County Founding Music Director and Conductor, The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra ♫ ♪ ♫ Marsden Marx Pages (former career ended by disability): http://tinyurl.com/ygpj7og Mariposa Symphony Orchestra: http://tinyurl.com/MariposaSO _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: finale-unsubscr...@shsu.edu
