SUSANVILLE – Here in California's high desert capital, the place to be last weekend – if you weren't one of the 8,000 residents behind bars – was the Susanville Swing Concert at the Veterans Memorial Hall.

Fans shimmied across the hardwood to "In The Mood," "Girl from Ipanema," "My Way" and 18 big-band tunes and original compositions.

Led by Matt Mullin, associate warden at one of two state prisons in town, the concert launched the Susanville Symphony's seventh season. Upcoming concerts will include "The Student and The Master" (Beethoven and Rachmaninoff), "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and "The Silk Road."

Sometimes called "Prison Town USA," Susanville would rather be known as the little town with the big sound.

Despite 12 percent unemployment in Lassen County, the nearly all-volunteer symphony has 478 season ticket holders and sells out every concert at $20 to $25 a seat.

Orchestras across the country are cutting salaries and concert dates, but in Susanville, home to about 9,000 non-inmates, the symphony is thriving.

"They're an interesting organization, and they've done very well for themselves," said Kris Sinclair, executive director of the Sacramento-based Association of California Symphony Orchestras. "They're up by the bootstraps, and they seem to be having fun, which is of course important."

Before moving to the local Assembly of God Church, which seats 500, the Susanville Symphony performed each concert three times at the 250-seat Methodist Church to satisfy the town's growing hunger for music.

The symphony's so hot, it's spawned its own farm team – a 60-member youth orchestra. There's also a free Master Class series taught by professional musicians and a music-in-the-schools program that real estate agents use to sell Susanville.

"It's nothing short of a miracle," said musical director Ben Wade, who in his white suit belted out a rollicking trumpet solo, "You Made Me Love You," at last weekend's swing concert.

Susanville's maestro

A swashbuckling 38-year-old bachelor and onetime "Survivor: Brazil" contestant, Wade is known here as coach, maestro, Dragonslayer and Pied Piper.

Susanville, 250 miles northeast of Sacramento, was hurting when Wade landed here in 2001 to coach the women's soccer team at Lassen Community College. The last lumber mill was closing, and the town was known mainly for its state prisons and the 2,500 employees who manage them.

Wade, son of a math professor at the University of Tennessee, burns with a passion for music, sports and adventure.

In 1986, he was declared best trumpet player in the world under age 18 by the International Trumpet Guild. He also coached soccer in Argentina and in 1996 set the world's solo kayaking record for a 6,132-mile odyssey from Baja to Columbia.

He loved the crisp scent of pines and mountain streams around Susanville but felt trapped and alone in what seemed a cultural wasteland.

When he learned there were string, brass and woodwind ensembles in town, he saw a chance to live his dream of conducting and composing.

He joined with local dentist and French horn player Ray White to start their own symphony.

They rounded up 19 musicians and began practicing at the college for their first concert in May 2003.

Wade had never conducted, but what he lacked in technical skill he made up for in showmanship.

One of the early skeptics was drummer Dick Bendix, a retired brigadier general who moved to Susanville in 1997 to win back his high school sweetheart. "I asked if she was seeing anybody, and she replied, 'In Susanville?' " recalled Bendix, who married her.

"We were overwhelmed with the turnout at our first concert," said Bendix, who literally clicked his heels when the symphony performed for his 80th birthday in 2007.

"It saved us," said violinist Dana Hirsche, one of several Sacramento transplants in the string section. "After 9/11, we were tiptoeing around trying to find our place in the world and all of a sudden we had something to sink our teeth into that filled us with joy."

Call The Bee's Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.