The Mariposa Symphony Orchestra's annual Festive Holiday Concert will be presented Saturday, Dec. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Fiester Auditorium of Mariposa County High School, led by the orchestra's founding Music Director and Conductor Les Marsden.

Tickets are now on sale for this event - which showcases music appropriate to the season. "The greatest way to get into the holiday spirit while taking an evening's break from gift-wrapping, Christmas cards, shopping, baking - an affordable evening just for you, from your Mariposa Symphony Orchestra," said Marsden.

The first half of the concert will be devoted to Felix Mendelssohn's Fifth Symphony, written when the composer was only 21. The concert will also commemorate Mendelssohn's birth bicentennial through this performance of the 5th Symphony - subtitled the "Reformation" Symphony because Mendelssohn built the entire fourth movement finale around one of the oldest tunes from the Protestant literature: "Ein feste' Burg ist unser Gott" composed by Martin Luther.

The concert will also feature the overture to Richard Wagner's only comic opera: "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg." The opera from which this overture is taken is set in Germany at about the time of Martin Luther's composition of "Ein feste' Burg ist unser Gott." The MSO will also perform the overture and pastoral symphony from Handel's "Messiah," as re-orchestrated by Mozart as well as the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana."

The MSO's Dr. Phillip Smith's "Dr. Smith's Christmas Fantasy" will return, and another seasonal piece will be heard: Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Greensleeves Fantasy" also known as "What Child is This?" The concert will close with Marsden's "Sierra Christmas Party," a piece which has closed every holiday concert of the MSO since its first performance in 2002.

Intermission refreshments will be offered by the Mariposa High School Grizzly Band Boosters. For further information or tickets, call or visit the Mariposa County Arts Council, Inc., parent organization of the MSO at 966- 3155. The Arts Council Office is located at 5009 Fifth Street. Tickets are offered at $6 for adults and $4 for students. Tickets are also available at the Mariposa County Visitors Center.