Mariposa's original daily updated online newspaper
From Merced to Mariposa - and Back Home
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The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra under Founding Music Director and Conductor Les Marsden will
feature a very special 'homecoming' of sorts at its upcoming "Welcome Spring!" Concerts on May 3rd and May 4th.
Cellist Michael McLane of Merced and a member of the MSO, will be featured as soloist in the Bb Cello Concerto of Luigi
Boccherini. According to Marsden, "Mike is truly a multipli-dazzling performer and I'm delighted to introduce him to our
audiences as soloist. The two of us go back well over 35 years - to our days of playing as teens in the Fresno Junior
Philharmonic Orchestra under Maestro Guy Taylor." The concerts will be offered in Mariposa on Saturday, May 3rd at 7:00
in the Fiester Auditorium of Mariposa County High School and the following day (May 4th) as a 2:30 matinee at Golden
Valley High School in Merced - a 'homecoming' concert of sorts for McLane in his hometown. In addition to the Boccherini
Bb Cello Concerto, the concerts will feature the Sixth Symphony "Pastoral" of Ludwig van Beethoven and will open with the
explosively ebullient overture to “Zampa” by Louis-Ferdinand Hérold.
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Michael McLane began private piano lessons at the age of seven in his native Fresno. At 10 he began playing cornet and by age 14 the tuba as well, continuing at Hoover High School where he also began playing the double bass. As a senior at Hoover, he earned the Congress of Strings Award - and participated in that program at USC: a nationwide workshop for outstanding young string players, supported by the Musicians Union. McLane earned his B. A. in Music from CSUF on the double bass and taught band for the Muroc School district in 1982-83. His passion for stringed instruments continued as he expanded his proficiency beyond the bass to the entire string family. In 1983 McLane moved to Merced and began teaching strings for the Merced City School District. Simultaneously, he studied violin with Dr. David Margetts at CSUF. But it was his great dream to seriously study the cello. He studied with Ira Lehn at the University of the Pacific and in 2004 entered the master's program at CSUF with emphasis in cello performance. He completed the master's program with studies under Dr. Dieter Wulfhorst in May of 2006 and presented a well-received and richly eclectic recital, receiving his Master's degree in the process. He has since studied with Dr. Thomas Loewenheim, Professor of Cello CSUF. In addition to his membership in the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra, he has played double bass with the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tulare County Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2006 Michael McLane presented several recitals on the cello in Brazil and more recently (in March of 2008) he performed solo recitals in Perugia and Rome, Italy.
Marsden adds, "back in March of 2004 during our second season, the MSO was performing two
major works: Vivaldi's The Four Seasons and Dvorak's 8th Symphony. Though Mike and I had spoken on the phone briefly
(our first contact in 30 years) imagine my surprise and delight when he showed up - out of the blue - about a half-hour
before the first of the two concerts in Mariposa with his double bass, wondering if I could use him that evening! I was
thrilled to see him after all those years. He knew both works extremely well and his performance with the orchestra that
evening (as well as the following day when we performed again in Oakhurst) was brilliant. Mike enjoyed the experience and
it was easy to persuade him to join the MSO on cello; the rest is a very happy ending." And there's yet another
'homecoming' sidebar to this story: Violist Linn Van Meter, who also played with both McLane and Marsden in the Fresno
Junior Philharmonic before earning multiple higher degrees in music performance and is now a resident of Mariposa County,
has just joined the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra. Also like McLane, she played in the Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra for
many years and Marsden is delighted to add yet another very impressive and gifted musician to the MSO's ranks. And to
resume a friendship which began in the 1970's.
Tickets for the Mariposa Symphony Orchestra’s Saturday, May 3rd "Welcome Spring!" Concert (7:00PM in the Fiester Auditorium) are now on sale at the Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc: (209) 966-3155 - located at 5009 Fifth Street (adjacent to The Pizza Factory) in beautiful downtown historic Mariposa. Tickets are also available at the Mariposa County Visitors Center at the north end of the town of Mariposa across from the Miners Inn; call the Visitors Center at (209) 966-7081 for hours. Tickets for the Sunday, May 4th Merced Matinee performance (2:30PM in the Golden Valley High School Auditorium) are available only from the Mariposa County Arts Council (contact info above.) Prices for either concert are the usual (and generously affordable) $6 for adults and $4 for students.
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Please direct any questions regarding tickets for this concert to:
The Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc. (209) 966-3155
Please direct any questions regarding this release to:
Les Marsden
Founding Music Director and Conductor,
The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra Music and Mariposa? Ahhhhh, Paradise!!! http://arts-mariposa.org/symphony.html http://www.geocities.com/~jbenz/lesbio.html
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