Biographical Note
Mayhew Lester Lake was born October 25, 1879, in Southville, Massachusetts, and spent his formative years in nearby Brockton. He attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he completed studies in piano, harmony, theory, and counterpoint. At age sixteen, he was a violinist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and five years later, he became the conductor at the Payret Theater in Havana, Cuba. He conducted many well-known performers, including Sophie Tucker, Al Jolson, Mae West, and the Duncan Sisters. Lake then moved to New York City and began arranging for composers such as Victor Herbert, George M. Cohan, Percy Grainger, Edwin Franko Goldman, John Philip Sousa, and Paul Whiteman. Lake was appointed editor-in-chief of the band and orchestra department at Carl Fischer music publishers in 1913 and held that position for thirty-five years. During World War 1, he served on the Secretary of War's advisory board, helping select music for military bands. As a composer, Lake's oeuvre runs the gamut from marches and polkas to opera and silent film. His first big success was The Evolution of Dixie, which was featured in several movies. His arrangement of Maurice Ravel's Bolero was praised by the composer and was performed frequently by bands, such as those led by John Philip Sousa and Edwin Franko Goldman. Lake composed and arranged under his own name as well as the pseudonyms Lester Brockton, Paul DuLac, Charles Edwards, William Lester, Robert Hall, and Alfred Byers. In addition to composing and arranging, he taught at New York University, Columbia, and the Ernest Williams School of Music and often adjudicated national high school band contests. He conducted his own professional band, the 16-piece brass ensemble Symphony in Gold, which appeared on the radio. He and his wife Susanne Louise Robin Lake had three children. Lake died on March 16, 1955, in Palisades, New Jersey.