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The Mid-Peninsula recorder Orchestra was formed in 1962 and has had a long and successful history of service to its members and the community.
It presents two concerts annually and performs regularly at various schools and community centers.
It has also appeared on public television stations KQED and KCSM,
at the Berkeley Early Music Festival,
the Palace of the Legion of Honor,
Mission San Jose,
the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek
and
California State University, East Bay.
The MPRO has given joint performances with
the Palo Alto Madrigal Singers,
the Congregational Oratorio Society,
the Young Performers String Orchestra,
the Oriana Consort,
the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra,
and
the California State University, East Bay Singers.
Guest soloists have included Susan Witt of the San Francisco Opera Chorus, and Harp soloist Janice Ortega.
Directors of MPRO workshops have included
LaNoue Davenport,
Hans Ulrich Staeps,
Friedrich von Huene,
John Tyson,
Peter Seibert,
and Martha Bixler
as well as many of the well-known recorder teachers and performers who make the San Francisco Bay Area their home.
Click here to see a more detailed history of the MPRO. |
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The MPRO supports the creation of new music for the recorder and has given premieres of works by several Bay Area composers. The MPRO is an affiliate of the San Francisco Early Music Society and donations made to the MPRO through SFEMS are tax deductible.
MPRO, The Early Days Part 1
MPRO, The Early Days Part 2
MPRO, The Middle Years Part 1
MPRO, The Middle Years Part 2
MPRO, The Past 25 Years Part 1
MPRO, The Past 25 Years Part 2
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The Mid-Peninsula Recorder Orchestra is now under the talented direction of Marion Rubinstein starting with the 2026-27 season.
Marion's Introduction: I started music, but not formally, from an early age. My mother said I was singing before I could talk, and have been singing ever since. I resonate with the marvelous composer William Byrd: "Since singing is so good a thing, I wish that all would learn to sing." My family was also musical, and so classical music was all around me; my father and later my younger brother were excellent amateur pianists. I started piano at 7, but within a few years had fallen in love with early music, sang in a Catholic choir, and started recorder in high school. When I went to Stanford in the late 60s, I, like Fred Palmer, studied with George Houle and Leonard Rattner, and also with an iconoclastic harpsichord teacher named Margaret Fabrizio. "Just do it", she urged, when I wanted to learn figured bass. It was the best advice I ever received about accompanying. My graduate school years were spent at the University of London, King's College, amid a more traditional education, but there I learned skills and ideas that I use to this day. Upon returning to California in 1975, I set up my music studio, and have taught hundreds of students recorder, harpsichord and piano (and even guitar!). I also married an astounding musician, Jonathan Salzedo, and helped raise two outstanding musician children and many cats, who have not caught the music bug. Most of my performing opportunities have come from my ensemble, The Albany Consort, which is now in its 52nd year! I am very lucky to have performed many times with some of the best early musicians in the bay area, and my colleagues have been my teachers. It's wonderful welcoming the new generation, and discovering their enthusiasm and energy. |