October 20, 2023 - The Mariposa Yosemite Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) opens its 19th Season on Saturday, October 28th at 7:00 P.M. in Mariposa's Fiester Auditorium and on Sunday, October 29th at 2:00 P.M. in Yosemite National Park's Curry Village Amphitheatre. The concert will feature Aaron Copland's haunting "Quiet City" for Trumpet, English Horn and Strings, Cesar Franck's "Symphony in d-minor" and the premiere of MYSO Founder and Conductor Les Marsden's "Persistence."
"Quiet City" was created by Copland from his incidental music for a never-opened 1939 Group Theatre play. Instead of the familiar "western" sound which became his hallmark in the 1930s, "Quiet City" features the softly gripping, melancholic late-night streets of a brooding Manhattan. Franck wrote only one symphony and though it arrived late in his career, it's now regarded as one of the greatest, most influential French works of the late Romantic era. In three movements, this cyclical work's tunes are familiar, beginning in the dark depths before ultimately finishing in a blaze of positive joy. "Persistence" is Marsden's first large-scale work since his "Our Nation's Nature," which had its final performance high upon Yosemite's Glacier Point in 2016. The new work is a reflection on the health, geo-political and metaphysical challenges the world (and Marsden personally) have dealt with since 2019 and how persistence has surmounted those threats.
Tickets for the 7:00 P.M. the evening of Saturday, October 28th Mariposa concert are $10 for adults and $8 for students, and must be purchased online in advance by visiting the orchestra's website at MYSO.live. Standby tickets will be available at the door for $15/adults and $10/students for cash or check only and no change available. The Fiester Auditorium is located at 5074 Old Highway North, Mariposa 95338.
The Curry Village Amphitheatre concert in Yosemite Valley will be held the following day on Sunday, October 29th at 2:00 P.M. (outdoors.) There are no tickets for this concert, but suggested donations of $10 per adult and $8 for students are urged.
Full details including extensive program notes are available on the orchestra's website at MYSO.live - along with secure online ticket purchasing. The MYSO's concerts are made possible by partnership with the National Park Service and generous support from Yosemite's Concessionaire Yosemite Hospitality.
