He grew up in a musical family, his mother playing the piano and his father singing in a choir. Michael Lawson, director of the WinterLake Orchestra, performer and teacher, took up the cello when his sister took up violin for a year.
"I thought if she could do it, I could do it," he says. "But I was lazy and wanted to sit down, so I played the cello and took private lessons."
A native of Winter Haven and a graduate of Winter Haven High School, Lawson says that when he was growing up, the high school didn't have a string program at the school, but the teacher organized a little string orchestra of 30 or 40 students.
"At her request, I used a string bass and I played bass in a couple of symphonies and cello in a string quartet in a couple of weddings and stuff."
Lawson majored in music at the University of New Mexico. When a family member became ill, he and his wife moved back to Winter Haven in 1975 and have been here since.
"Hunting for work at the time, I volunteered with the music teacher with the string program at Winter Haven High School," Lawson says. "When she decided to leave the next year, I just sort of fell into it. I never planned on being a teacher, but I enjoyed volunteering and that felt natural, so I have been doing it ever since."
He teaches every day at Winter Haven and Lake Region high schools and Denison Middle School. The WinterLake Orchestra, which he directs, is a combination of students from Winter Haven and Lake Region high schools.
"I am considered an itinerant teacher where I travel to the classroom and do all three schools every day," Lawson says. "I teach sixth grade through 12th grade. Most of the students who come to me at Denison started (playing an instrument) in the fifth grade at one of the elementary schools. The students provide their own instruments. Classes are not by audition, so anyone who signs up for the class is in the class.
"It is challenging and I don't mind taking beginners at any level," Lawson says. "If they want to switch instruments, I help them do that, too."
Last year, the WinterLake Orchestra had 42 members, Lawson says.
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Victoria Sims, 14, a member of the WinterLake String Orchestra, works through a piece during class at Lake Region High School.
Paul Crate / News Chief |
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"I teach both the Winter Haven and the Lake Region orchestras, but each high school has its individual concerts," he says. "We play the national anthem for the Florida Band Masters adjudicated event at Denison at the end of October each year.
"All the bands play for judges and in a band concert. It is unique for an orchestra to play for a band concert, but is hard for a band that is gearing up for its presentation for judges to have to worry about performing something that day," he says.
Lawson says his music FCAT is the Music Performance Assessment Orchestras when all the orchestras in the county come together in February for the competition and to play before judges.
"That is kind of our music FCAT," Lawson says. "Last year we got superior ratings for WinterLake Orchestra and Denison Middle School - both levels are done separately."
Lawson carries his own repair kit with a tool box and supplies to classes.
"You have to keep the children playing," he says. "If the bridge falls out (on a stringed instrument), it is easy to put back in. I fix broken strings. I carry some along and they pay me back so I can put the money back in the string account."
The orchestras play mostly classical, Lawson says. "There are full orchestra arrangements for only string orchestras, and since that is what I have, that is most of what we play for arrangements."
Talk about spreading yourself thin. Lawson plays bass, and he and the music teacher from Auburndale, who plays guitar and violin, have a group called Those Guys. They play jazz, rock and country music.
"We will do whatever anybody pays us to do," Lawson says.
Then he joined a retired band director and the present chorus teacher, both from Auburndale, calling that group The Amigo Brothers.
"I play electric bass in that," Lawson says. "Nice thing about it, we play rock 'n' roll and also sing a cappella doo wop - my line being the bass - and they sing the other parts. Those Guys plays concerts four or five times a year. The Amigo Brothers play a couple times a year. Most all the advertising is done word of mouth - we don't go out of your way to advertise, but it is fun and we do what we can. I grew up classically trained and the guitar man corrupted me.
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Michael Lawson directs the orchestra at Lake Region High School. He also directs strings classes at Winter Haven High School and Denison Middle School.
Paul Crate / News Chief |
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"The other groups I play in are orchestra oriented," Lawson says. "I play as a volunteer in the Imperial Symphony in Lakeland, playing bass, and in the Florida Lakes Orchestra, another professional orchestra in Mount Dora and Clermont, where there really isn't any orchestra in that area. With the Imperial Orchestra we play five indoor concerts and five or six pops concerts a year. The Lakes Orchestra plays five indoor concerts a year, so they have a little series."
Lawson's wife plays violin and viola and has taught off and on.
"I play cello in a string quartet that is a prim and proper classical group playing for weddings and stuff," Lawson says. "My wife and I, and two other people we contract at the time for a performance, give a performance five or six times a year. The group is called The Unstrung String Quartet.
"I love it (music)," Lawson says. "It keeps me busy and keeps me out of trouble. I really enjoy performing, and if I can't make a living at it at least in this area, I have the public school day job that pays the bills."
What interests do he and his wife share?
"We share the string quartet, both play in the church handbell choir and we raise guide dog puppies for the Southeastern Guide Dog School in Palmetto," Lawson says. "My wife is the area coordinator."
The couple is raising its eighth puppy for the school - a yellow Labrador retriever.
