Christmas Music - with added poignancy
December 6, 2019 - It's become a welcome, joyous annual Mariposa tradition: The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra's December Festive Holiday Concert. This year's concert is scheduled for Saturday, December 21st at 7:00 P.M. in the Fiester Auditorium of Mariposa County High School, but the event will be a little more meaningful than usual. The performance will be dedicated as a joyous celebration of the late Martha Eads, who passed away on Saturday, November 30th after suffering a stroke earlier in the month. The MSO is a program of the Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc.
(Pictured): Martha Eads, at her final performance as the MSO's Concertmaster on August 21, 2016 - in the orchestra's now-famed Glacier Point concert.
NPS photo detail by Al Golub
Eads was a founding member of the MSO, having participated in the orchestra from its very first rehearsal in September 2002, and its very first concert on December 21, 2002. A gifted string player and retired teacher from Southern California who lived in Oakhurst for decades, Eads initially played viola in the MSO before moving to the first violin section, eventually becoming Concertmaster of the orchestra. She held that position for three seasons, from July 6, 2013 until August 21, 2016 at which point she stepped back to sectional playing in the first violins, before playing her final MSO concert on Saturday, December 16, 2017. She retired from the MSO after that concert due to health considerations, after spending 15 years in the orchestra.
The orchestra's December 21, 2019 concert will be presented exactly 17 years, to the very day: of its first concert. The evening's performance will open with both suites from Georges Bizet's incidental music to "L'Arlesienne" - including the perennial holiday favorite "Farandole" movement. "L'Arlesienne" was composed by Bizet just three years before he wrote what is perhaps the world's most popular opera: "Carmen." The concert's second half will feature the rarely heard, beautifully evocative suite from Rimsky-Korsakov's 1894 comic opera based upon Gogol's short story "Christmas Eve;" the composer is best known for his beloved "Scheherazade." The concert will close with Marsden's orchestration of various Christmas Carols: "Sierra Christmas Party" - just as every MSO concert has since the very first on December 21, 2002. Information including Marsden's extensive program notes and composer bios/photos for each piece is available at http://tinyurl.com/MariposaSO.
Tickets for the MSO’s Saturday, December 21st, 2019 Festive Holiday Concert are priced at $10 Adults, $6 Students. Mariposa County Arts Council Members receive discounted prices at $8 Adults, $5 Students. Tickets are now available for secure online purchase by visiting the Arts Council's Shop page: 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.
Source: MSO
