Mary Hakes
Been with the MSO since: fall 1999 (9 years completed)
Hometown: grew up in Austin, MN, I have lived in Northfield since 1990
Education: Bachelors from U of MN - instrumental music education
My day job: Assistant Dean of Admissions & Music Admissions Coordinator at St. Olaf College
Earliest musical memory: playing 78rpm yellow kids' records on the family record player. My sisters and I literally wore them out.
Favorite thing about performing music: It gives me the opportunity to be part of something bigger than myself.
Other instruments I play: piano
The composition I would most like to perform: It would be hard to list, but anything with a good piccolo part gets my vote. Dvorak's Slavonic Dances would be great fun.
Best part about being an MSO musician: Making music with a group of people who have a wide variety of backgrounds and professional lives, but come together on Monday nights to play.
What's on my iPod or in my CD player: Some music, mostly classical, a variety of piano music, but mostly podcasts: This American Life, Skeptic's Guide to the Universe, Radio Lab and Wait Wait Don't Tell Me. I'm around music all day every day, so I don't listen to too much music at home.
Other interesting facts(s): I own six piccolos, including three identical Artley pics from the 1960s (two of them are the ones I play most of the time). One of them was the piccolo I played in HS and was re-united with it by accident 20 years later - I was interviewed and told the tale on American Public Media's "The Story" in May 2007...My husband Dave and I have three hilarious, wonderful children: Betsye, 24, Anne, 21, and Charlie 17... I like to knit mittens, ride my bike, and do sudoku puzzles (but not at the same time).