MYSO's 20^th Anniversary Season Dates Announced 

September 3, 2024 – The Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra's Grand 20^th Anniversary Season kicks off on October 26 and 27 with concerts in both Yosemite National Park and Mariposa.  The Season Opening concert repertoire includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 5th Violin Concerto, K. 210 with the MYSO's wunderkind 16-year-old Concertmaster Rylan Post as featured soloist and the orchestra will pay tribute to the Hallowe'en season with César Franck's horrific tone poem Le Chasseur Maudit ("The Accursed Huntsman") and the grand finale to that concert will be MYSO audience favorite composer Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6 in D-Major (1880) - a continuation of the orchestra's survey of the complete symphonies of that great master.  The orchestra has so far featured Dvořák’s Symphonies 3, 8 and 9 "From the New World."

Historic Photo: the Orchestra's 12-20-23 Festive Holiday Concert, one year after its 2002 premiere.  Photo Credit Sue Logothetti Thorson.

This landmark season also marks the MYSO's 23^rd year of existence, which included a three-year COVID hiatus for its live concerts.  Founded in 2002 by Music Director and Conductor Les Marsden initially as an informal, small salon orchestra, his plans accelerated rapidly as word spread, growing from 10 musicians to 17, then to 31 players by the time of the orchestra's premiere concert on December 21, 2002.  The orchestra expanded to 45 musicians by its second concert and continued to grow in the ensuing years.  Its size is now limited by the small stage at its primary Mariposa concert venue, the Fiester Auditorium at Mariposa County High School but string players are always sought and those interested in joining can email MYSO.alive@gmail.com for more information.   

The current 20^th-Anniversary MYSO consists of musicians from Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus and Mariposa Counties, and was proclaimed "Yosemite's Own Orchestra" many years ago.  Mariposa is recognized as the smallest American town with its own symphony orchestra.  It has been internationally recognized as well, most prominently by British music journalist/classical music authority Norman Lebrecht.

The orchestra performs three concerts in Yosemite National Park each year, with another three in the Mariposa area.  The MYSO is the only orchestra in Yosemite's 134 year history afforded the honor of playing in the park, which it has since 2007.  For the first time, the orchestra's upcoming season of an entire year's dates is now available, as shown below.  The Yosemite locations are also confirmed, with only the three Mariposa concerts' locations to be released later.

The orchestra's complete 2024-2025 20^th Anniversary Season dates are as follows:

Grand 20^th Anniversary Opening Concert:
Saturday, October 26^th at 7:00 P.M. (MARIPOSA LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED)
Sunday, October 27^th at 2:00 P.M. - The Garden Terrace (Room,) Yosemite Lodge - Yosemite National Park

Festive Annual Holiday Concert:
Saturday, December 21^st (MARIPOSA LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED) - a single 2:00 P.M. Matinee ONLY

Annual 2025 Spring Concert Weekend:
Saturday, April 12^th at 7:00 P.M. (MARIPOSA LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED)
Sunday, April 13^th at 2:00 P.M. (LOCATION(S) - the Great Lounge of the Ahwahnee Hotel OR the Garden Terrace (Room) Yosemite Lodge

2025 Independence Day Spectacular! Concert:
Saturday, June 28^th at 7:00 P.M. - the Great Lawn of the Wawona Hotel, Yosemite National Park

(Pictured) MYSO Concertmaster Rylan Post, featured Soloist in Mozart's 5^th Violin Concerto on the orchestra's October 26-27 Concert Weekend.  Photo self-submitted.

To celebrate this landmark 20^th Anniversary, the orchestra will offer a series of press features over the next few months sharing a chronological retrospective narrative and photos capturing highlights of its history from Marsden and also MYSO musicians past and present.

Extensive program notes as well as online ticket purchase links for (only) the Mariposa concerts will become available on www.MYSO.LIVE six weeks before the season formally begins.  The MYSO's concerts in Yosemite National Park are always free, though a suggested donation of $10 per person or more at the concert is always helpful.  Those concerts are made possible by the orchestra's major donor - Yosemite Hospitality LLC, a subsidiary of Aramark.  The orchestra is also grateful for its longtime partnership with Yosemite National Park.  From the very beginning, Marsden wanted to ensure that no child - of any age - would be denied the amazing experience of a live, symphonic orchestra by dint of geographic location.  That opportunity, that orchestra: will now begin its 20 season of presenting "the joy of music," as Leonard Bernstein called it - in the Yosemite region.  

Source: MYOS