The Glacier Symphony and Chorale will welcome cellist Robert deMaine to the Flathead Valley this weekend. DeMaine, currently the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, will be the featured artist at the season finale concerts “American Cello Master, Ravel and Borodin.”

Performances will be held on Saturday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, May 1, at 3 p.m. at the Flathead High School Performance Hall in Kalispell.

This will be deMaine’s second appearance with the Glacier Symphony and Chorale.

“I’m afraid I’m not going to get to do too much sight-seeing because they keep me pretty busy,” deMaine said of his upcoming visit. “But Kalispell and Glacier National Park, that whole area ... just seeing it is great. I always thought it looked like a movie set, like it’s not even real. It’s just so, so beautiful.

“Plus the air quality in Montana versus L.A. ... I feel like I’m hooked up to oxygen!”

DeMaine is no stranger to travel. He was born in Oklahoma City, but grew up in a military family and moved frequently. Once in college, he studied at Meadowmount and the Eastman School of Music, both in New York; the Piatigorsky Seminar in Los Angeles; Music Academy of the West in California; the Marlboro School and Festival in Vermont; and Yale University in Connecticut. He also attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and the Kronberg Academy in Germany.

DeMaine went on to play professionally as the principal cellist for the Hartford Symphony, New York String Orchestra, and Connecticut Opera, before landing the job with the Detroit Symphony for more than 10 years.

DeMaine has appeared as a guest artist on stages all over the world, and is a frequent collaborator with such chamber ensembles as the Beaux Arts Trio as well as the Emerson, Juilliard, Kronos, Cleveland, American, Mendelssohn, Parisii, Chiara, Amernet, and Pacifica string quartets. Currently deMaine is a member of the Ehnes Quartet (with violinists James Ehnes, Amy Schwartz Moretti, and violist Richard O’Neill) and the Dicterow-deMaine-Biegel Trio. He has also recorded for the Chandos, Naxos, and Onyx labels.

All things considered, DeMaine said he is happy now in Los Angeles and wouldn’t change a thing.

“I wake up every morning feeling like the luckiest man in the world,” deMaine said. “This is as good as it gets.”

The road to “as good as it gets” began when deMaine was a young child. He came from a musical family, where music lessons were expected. His older sister played the cello.

“She was the reason I wanted to play cello,” deMaine said. “I just idolized her.”

In fourth grade, deMaine was finally able to sign up to learn a string instrument through his school’s music program. He said he briefly considered taking up trumpet instead, “but I sucked!”

He learned to play piano in church and took up guitar as a teenager so he could play in a rock band.

“I played sports, and I did this and I did that, but at about 16 or 17 I realized I just wasn’t good at anything else,” deMaine said. “Music was always a part of my life. I couldn’t live without it.”

In addition to performing as a professional musician, deMaine is a composer and has written several works for the cello, including a set of “Twelve Études Caprices,” five of which will be performed as part of the upcoming concerts this weekend.

“My enthusiasm for writing music has recently been rekindled,” deMaine said. “But I don’t consider myself a professional composer, I just do it as an avocation.”

The season finale shows will open with deMaine performing as a solo cellist. Then the Glacier Symphony, led by John Zoltek, will take the stage to accompany deMaine in the “Cello Concerto No. 2” by early 20th-century American composer Victor Herbert, himself a cellist and composer.

Following intermission, the entire Symphony and Chorale will take the stage for two showpieces, the French composer Maurice Ravel’s “Daphnis and Chloe Suite No. 2” and “Polovtsian Dances from “Prince Igor” from Alexander Borodin’s opera.

“The Victor Herbert [piece] is one of my favorites,” deMaine said. “I’m so excited to be playing it again, and I hope the audience will be into it as well.”

Tickets for both concerts can be purchased at the GSC Box Office, by calling 406-407-7000 or online at www.gscmusic.org. Seats are available in tiered pricing, ranging from $10 to $34. All youth through grade 12 are admitted free to the concerts when accompanied by an adult.

On Saturday, a free handicap-accessible bus will take Whitefish concert-goers to Kalispell. It is available for anyone needing a ride. Reservations are required as seating is limited to 12 people. Call 406-407-7000 to reserve a spot.

For more information about deMaine or to hear and purchase music, visit www.robertdemaine.com. For more information about the upcoming Kalispell concerts, call 406-407-7000 or visit www.gscmusic.org.

Entertainment Editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.