Tripling of MSO's Annual Yosemite Concerts 

October 3, 2019 - The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra's 18^th Season begins with a concert featuring music that's mysterious, macabre and even a little terrifying.  That concert will also initiate a new annual schedule featuring three concerts in Yosemite National Park each year, including this year's autumnal, Halloween-themed Season-Opener.  The MSO is a program of the Mariposa County Arts Council and the MSO's Yosemite concerts are offered through the MSO's partnership with the National Park Service and Yosemite Hospitality, a division of Aramark.
(Pictured):The MSO's June 29, 2019 "Independence Day Spectacular! Concert" played to an audience of 500 on the grounds of the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite.  NPS photos by Al Golub.

MSO Founder/Conductor Les Marsden has programmed a concert featuring well-known "scary" symphonic music and but also two terrifying rarities from beloved master Antonin Dvorak.  That composer's music has been well-represented in the MSO's past concerts, with works including his 3^rd, 8^th and famed 9^th "From the New World" Symphonies, Cello Concerto in b-minor (featuring soloist Ira Lehn) and both sets of Slavonic Dances, but late in life, and after having produced all those masterpieces, the composer was inspired by the macabre tales of Czech writer Karel Erben (1811-1870.)   And Dvorak tried something new to him: composing symphonic poems - programmatic music which tell stories through sound, without words.  The stories behind his "The Water Goblin" and "The Noonday Witch" symphonic poems are both terrifying and grisly in the manner of Grimm Fairy Tales and the composer translated those tales from book to music with the brilliance of a master at the height of his powers.  Also on the program: one of the classics of silent films, Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in d-minor," originally for organ but in Marsden's orchestration, a fully-symphonic showpiece resembling less a Baroque work and more a contemporary horror-movie soundtrack.  The famed tone poem "Danse Macabre" by French composer Camille Saint-Saëns will feature MSO Concertmaster Sally Martinez as the fiddling personification of Death rousing skeletons from their graves for a Halloween night's gambol in a cemetery.   Fellow Frenchman Charles Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" may not be recognizable by name to everyone, but as the Alfred Hitchcock theme it's universally well-known as is Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky's terrifying "Night on Bald Mountain" - a piece famously featured in the 1940 Walt Disney classic film "Fantasia," which also included conductor/arranger Leopold Stokowski's own treatment of the Bach "Toccata and Fugue in d-minor."
(Pictured):The MSO's June 29, 2019 "Independence Day Spectacular! Concert" at the Wawona Hotel in Yosemite.  NPS photos by Al Golub.

The MSO's 18^th Season-Opening Concerts will be held on Saturday, October 19^th at 7:00 P.M. in the Fiester Auditorium of Mariposa County High School (ticket prices below) and on Sunday, October 20^th at 2:00 P.M. in the Great Lounge of the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park.  The Sunday, October 20^th Yosemite Concert (only) is free, with seating first-come, first seated.  That concert is made possible by the generous cooperation and assistance of Michael Reynolds – Superintendent of Yosemite National Park, the National Park Service, Yosemite Hospitality – a division of Aramark, Michael Boyer – Manager of the Majestic Yosemite Hotel and the musicians of the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra.

Tickets for the MSO’s 7:00 P.M. Saturday, October 19^th Concert in the Fiester Auditorium of Mariposa County High School are now available at the following prices: General Admission: $10 Adults, $6 Students.  Special prices for Mariposa County Arts Council Members: $8 Adults, $5 Students.  Tickets may be safely, securely purchased online by visiting http://tinyurl.com/MSOTickets.  Tickets are also available in person at the Mariposa County Arts Council’s office and Treetop Gallery on the top floor of the Chocolate Soup store (5009 Highway 140) at the southern entrance to the town of Mariposa.  Call (209) 966-3155 for tickets and information.  The MSO is a program of the Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc.  Information including Marsden's extensive program notes and composer bios/photos for each piece are now available by visiting http://tinyurl.com/MariposaSO.

Source: MSO