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Magazine
The Ger Mandolin Orchestra Tours Poland
International mandolin super-group revives the name and repertoire of a 1930's Polish Jewish mandolin orchestra. And this September, they took the music back to its source. Full story and notes from the tour by one of the Ger mandolinists.
By Tim Connell
This is like some surreal mandolin-geek's dream: I'm onstage in a beautiful Warsaw synagogue with ten of the greatest mandolin players in the world, all of us wearing yarmulkes, swaying back and forth in ¾ time, playing mandolins and singing the chorus of a well-known Polish folksong, as an audience of 500-plus stands, arms linked and swaying, singing along. I look across the stage at our musical director, Mike Marshall, strumming his Gibson Lloyd Loar and singing with a big grin on his face, his yarmulke practically falling off his head, and I just start laughing. We are the modern incarnation of the 1930's-era Ger Mandolin Orchestra, and we are playing the final encore of our last show at the Festiwal Singera in Warsaw, Poland. We've just spent an amazing week immersed in Polish culture, the mandolin, and the wonderfully eclectic music of pre-war Yiddish orchestras. What follows here is a report on who we are and how we got here, along with some notes from the road.
What is Ger?
The Ger Mandolin Orchestra comes with an enchanting back story, which I will summarize briefly before reporting on the Poland trip. The modern Ger is the brainchild of Israeli-American businessman Avner Yonai. While searching for his family's roots in Poland, Yonai stumbled upon a photo (pictured here) of a mandolin orchestra which featured, among others, his grandfather (standing, 2nd from left), his uncle (standing with baton) and a cousin (sitting, 2nd from left). The group was a Jewish community mandolin orchestra from the town of Góra Kalwaria, Poland, which in Yiddish is called “Ger” (rhymes with “hair”). Yonai's grandfather was one of the few in the photo to escape the holocaust a few years later. As a living memorial to his ancestors, Yonai conceived a dream to revive the orchestra's repertoire with the help of modern mandolinists, enlisting Mike Marshall as Musical Director, and ten more of us to recreate the original group.
The original Ger Mandolin Orchestra
Since the exact repertoire that the original Ger Mandolin Orchestra performed cannot be known, our repertoire comes from extensive research into what plucked string orchestras were playing in the area at that time. Our set contains a mix of popular Yiddish music of the day, sacred Jewish song, Polish folk music and even a couple of Italian polkas, which were popular with mandolin ensembles all over Europe. After our inaugural show in Berkeley, California this past March, we received an invitation from the mayor of Góra Kalwaria to perform in his town. Warsaw's Jewish cultural festival, the Singer Festival (“Festiwal Singera Warszawa”) booked us, and presented one of our concerts in Góra Kalwaria (about an hour south of Warsaw) as part of the festival, enabling us to take up the mayor's kind offer.
Who is Ger?
Wednesday, Aug. 30
Sitting in the lobby bar of the Westin Hotel on my first night in Warsaw, feeling extremely jet-lagged, I reunite with the other members of the orchestra as they trickle in, in advance of our first rehearsal tomorrow. We've come from all over the place: Brian Oberlin (Director, Oregon Mandolin Orchestra) and I flew from Portland, Oregon in the USA; Dana Rath and Adam Roszkiewicz of the Modern Mandolin Quartet just arrived from San Francisco. Also making the long trip from the West coast of the US was classical mandolinist Chris Acquavella from San Diego, California. From New York City, our resident Jewish music expert, Jeff Warschauer; from Toronto, Canada, Eric Stein (Director, Toronto Mandolin Orchestra and the Ashkenaz Festival), who will spend the week wrestling with a dauntingly massive contrabass balalaika that Avner has acquired for our shows here. Coming from a bit closer and looking more rested than the North Americans: recently-signed Deutsche Grammophon recording artist Avi Avital, Israeli-born but currently living in Berlin; Florian Salzmann, also from Germany, a wonderful young classical player from Wuppertal who is filling in for Sharon Gilchrist on this tour; and finally Radim Zenkl, who lives in California, but who has just driven up from his native Czech Republic where he's been all summer, armed with a cache of mandolas, octave mandolins and mandocellos from his friend luthier Rosta Capek which we will use on the tour. We're still missing our fearless leader, Mike Marshall, who is en route from San Francisco.
The Ger Mandolin Orchestra of 2011
Rehearsals and Tour
Thursday Sept. 1
After an emotional tour of the Warsaw ghetto exhibit at the Jewish museum, we finally get to work, our first rehearsal taking place in a very small room in a theater in downtown Warsaw. We've got to get two sets of material up to par by Saturday night. We'll play a show in Góra Kalwaria (“Ger”) Saturday night, a workshop in Warsaw on Sunday afternoon, and a show Sunday night in the Warsaw Synagogue, before playing a single piece in the festival's grand finale concert. The rehearsal is rendered a bit chaotic by the presence of a film crew which will follow us the entire week, documenting the tour. Also, still missing is Mike Marshall – he missed a connection in Amsterdam, but should join us later.
Mike finally arrives midway through the rehearsal and we keep plowing away all night, with him right off of the long flight. As a bandleader, he brings a sense of goofiness and fun to the work at hand, and we have some real laughs even as we struggle with some of the material. It's fun stuff: Eastern European dance music and Yiddish wedding music, with many big endings, shouted “Heys!” and other dramatic effects that have us giggling frequently.
Mike switches between his Loar and his Monteleone mandocello; Avi plays a beautiful Israeli-made mandolin by Arik Kerman; Chris plays a Brian N. Dean classical mandolin; Jeff switches between guitar and his well-worn Gibson A-style; Adam holds down the low end with classical guitar or Monteleone mandocello; Eric, after much cursing, manages to pull a huge, driving sound out of the balalaika (which we've named “Big Ethel”); Dana alternates between his Monteleone Grand Artist mandolin, an A-style mandola made by Pavel Suçek and a pin-bridge cittern made by Paddy Burgin of New Zealand; Radim plays 1930's-era, no-label 4-string mandola along with his signature wide-neck Capek mandolin; Florian plays a matched set Italian-style bowl-back mandolin and mandola; Brian and I alternate between our own mandolins (his a Collings F-style, mine an Arrow G-model by Paul Lestock) and the Capek mandola and octave mandolin.
Eric and Ethel get on the Bus
Friday, Sept. 2
Today we're off to Góra Kalwaria for set-up, sound check and rehearsal for tomorrow's show, as well as for an official reception by the Mayor at City Hall. The Jewish population in Ger before the war was approximately 3000 out of a total 6000. Today, there are two remaining Jews, Mr. Prajs and Mr. Karpman, both of whom welcomed us at the Mayor's reception. Mr. Prajs remembered every single mandolinist in the old picture and told stories about some of them. The venue is the Synagogue, the old center of Jewish life in Ger, a now fairly run-down brick building with one main hall. It seats about 500, and it will be dressed up very nicely with curtains, lighting and backdrops by tomorrow night. We are shuttled all over this small town of 11,000 on our tour bus, hurried along from place to place by our Polish tour manager, Justyna, finally returning to Warsaw by 6pm.
After a brief and hilariously disorganized outdoor performance in Warsaw, we repair to “Pardon To, Tu”, the artsy café at the center of the festival scene, for Czech beer (at Radim's insistence) and lots of laughs. Later on we'll go out as a band to Warsaw's beautifully restored Old Town for a Polish dinner under the stars.
Saturday, Sept 3
The show in Ger is sold-out, with benches and speakers set up outside the venue in the parking lot for overflow crowd. Our producers, Avner and Ellie Shapiro, have been in Poland for about a month, and apparently they've been doing their PR homework. The crowd is very excited and wildly receptive to our music. After a solemn mood-setting Shalom Aleichem (arranged by David Grisman), we launch into our set starting with a medley of Yiddishe Hora and Khupe Tants (arranged by our bassist Eric Stein, who provided us with arrangements for at least half of our act). We place the two Italian polkas back to back in the set, and this lights a fire under everyone. The favorite of many in the band comes after this, a suite of folk dances by Polish composer Tomasz Kiesewetter – four pieces with a big rousing ending on the last one. The first set closes with a medley of Romanian tunes arranged by Eric Stein, which accelerates to a rousing foot-stomping close.
The second set begins with solo and small group pieces: Avi plays Nigun by Ernest Bloch, Chris plays Diferencias by Victor Kioulaphides; Radim pulls out a 2-string mandolin (!!!) and plays an original piece, Rag from Prague; and Mike, Eric and I play a three-mandolin arrangement of Santa Morena by Jacob do Bandolim, a Brazilian with Jewish roots. After another Eric Stein medley, Jeff begins the vocal part of the set, leading the band and audience in a couple of Yiddish and Hebrew songs. Our first encore is the Dave Apollon masterpiece Russian Rag, and we close with the Polish folksong, Szła Dzieweczka, eliciting the same audience participation noted at the start of this article.
Sunday, Sept. 4
Our last day in Poland, and a busy one. We've got to set up and sound check at the Warsaw Synagogue in time to teach a “Bring Your Own Mandolin” workshop at 1:00, followed by a show at 5:00. The soundcheck is cut short at 10:30 because there are apparently two hundred young mandolin students who've come from all over Poland already waiting outside the front door of the synagogue, mandolins in hand! We improvise and have a really amazing workshop with them, playing some of our tunes for them, listening to several of the individual groups and then passing out sheet music so that they can play with us.
Ger Mandolin Workshop in Warsaw
The show in Warsaw is sold out as well. We play a single-set show, cutting out the solo and small group pieces. The crowd is a bit more urbane and reserved, the setting here definitely more ornate and imposing than last night, but they are enthralled from start to finish. In the crowd we see among others: some of the young mandolinists we met earlier today; the American Ambassador to Poland, who greeted the band backstage before the show; and Dariusz Zielínski, our friend the Mayor of Góra Kalwaria, who came up to Warsaw for tonight's show, and who led the crowd in standing, linking arms and singing along to the final encore.
After clearing out of the Synagogue, Justyna hurries us off to the festival mainstage, where we are unwittingly used as extras in an elaborate theatrical production before thousands of people on live Polish TV. Surrounded by huge sets, lighting and 30-plus characters in gaudy old-world costumes and make-up, we blast through Tosca Pa Rodina with no chairs and no music stands (at the request of the director). And with this surreal experience, our trip comes to an end.
What's Next for Ger?
The tour was a thrill for all of us: excited audiences, fun bandmates, and a chance to be a part of this amazing cultural, historical and musical experience that Avner Yonai has realized. A lot of people have been asking what's next for the Ger Mandolin Orchestra. At this point, most of us have only been privy to rumor and conjecture; but I can say that, just as in San Francisco, this trip was heavily documented, with a film crew following us everywhere and with all of the performances professionally recorded as well. So, there will certainly be a longer documentary on the way. There is talk of recording (on vinyl?! - did I overhear this or just dream it?), other rumors about taking the show to Israel, and even a return to Poland next summer for the much larger Jewish festival in Krakow. Personally, I've been suffering from acute “Ger withdrawal” since returning home, so I certainly welome any opportunities that arise in the future.
Warszawa Gazeta review
Concert in Góra Kalwaria
Concert in the Nożyk Synagogue;Warsaw,Poland
Concert Finale Singera Warszawa
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International mandolin super-group revives the name and repertoire of a 1930's Polish Jewish mandolin orchestra. And this September, they took the music back to its source. Full story and notes from the tour by one of the Ger mandolinists.
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