Finnders & Youngberg, Colorado’s premier Americana quintet, will add yet another honor to their impressive resume: they’ve been chosen as an official showcase act for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass conference in Nashville, Tenn., this fall. They are one of just 13 acts invited to perform during the bluegrass industry’s biggest and most important week.
Festival Mozaic has announced its 2012 summer season, which will take place July 12-22 in the most charismatic spaces across California's Central Coast including Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, Chapel Hill in wine country, Hearst Castle overlooking the sparkling Pacific Ocean, and Mission San Miguel . The theme, "In The Footsteps of Giants," will showcase a lineage of masterworks which inspired – and were inspired by – phenomenal composers over the ages.
The San Francisco Mandolin Orchestra with singers Susan Gundunas and Twila Ehmcke will be performing one of the gems of the Baroque music era, Stabat Mater, written in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
The Newport Festivals Foundation has announced the lineup for the 2012 Newport Folk Festival set to take place July 28-29 at Fort Adams State Park.
This album is sophisticated urban pop played with a combination of acoustic instruments usually found in bluegrass bands. Any further references to blugrass is hard to find on the album.
A neurological disorder called dystonia is estimated to have ended the careers of at least one member of every major American metropolitan orchestra. Dystonia has claimed the livelihoods of musicians across genres including the acclaimed pianist Leon Fleisher of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, former first oboist of the Chicago Symphony Alex Klein, acoustic guitarist Billy McLaughlin, classical guitarist Liona Boyd, keyboard player Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and others.
Luckily, Alexandra Coutinho and Rio Con Brio decided to make this a stand alone album. The plan was to feature Alexandra Coutinho on some tracks of Rio Con Brio's Caprice.
Caprice is an album by a guitar and mandolin duo playing mostly choro standards. It could be a challenge to make this fly. Rio Con Brio have pulled it off.
Watertown is an honest low cost production. All tracks but one are signed songwriter Cheryl J. Watson. Fellow musicians helped her by contributing takes from their home studios.
The expression Goat Rodeo is a description for an event where a hundred things must go right in order for the event to work. That is the concept for this cross genre production.
Magazine
Baltimore hosts 25th anniversary CMSA convention
If you were there, you’ll agree that the Baltimore host team put on an excellent convention for our quarter-century landmark. With so many people attending, the energy level was high. If you weren’t there, you want to know what you missed. Here are some highlights.
By Barbara Conrad - Previously published in the Mandolin Journal
Performers: A big reason to come to a convention is the chance to hear some of the top players around. Where else can you hear, in the same place, mandolin stars like Chris Acquavella, Carlo Aonzo, Joe Brent and Aaron Weinstein, playing everything from baroque to jazz and original compositions? Or hear some of the best mandolin orchestras? The host Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra is a top-level one.
Aaron Weinstein - Photo by Roger Price
The visiting Providence Mandolin Orchestra, led by Mark Davis, impressed me, particularly with their North American premier performance of Sinfonia a pizzico, by our convention’s composer-in-residence, Victor Kioulaphides. Other groups we heard included the Baltimore Mandolin Quartet; the Mandoleers from Arlington, VA; an ensemble combining members of the Long Island Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra and Mandophonics from Southwest Florida; and the Philadelphia Mandolin and Guitar Ensemble.
Workshops: These headliners don’t come just to perform, but also to share their knowledge. Chris had two repertoire sessions: baroque and classical, and romantic and contemporary. He also led the Teachers and Technique Workshop Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. Carlo gave classes on technique and on American solo repertoire; Joe and Aaron had sessions on jazz improvisation and chord melody, and Joe also led a classical tremolo workshop. Our illustrious conductor, Jim Bates, gave an enlightening class, “Taking your orchestra to the next level,” and another highly participative one on rhythm. Toni Nigrelli led her ever-popular sight-reading classes. Laura Norris and Joyce Adams demonstrated their successful Mandolin for Kids teaching program. Those were just a few of the menu items on offer.
Toni Nigrelli - Photo by Roger Price
Playing: listening and learning are important, but we come to play. From Day 1 on Wednesday we had a full orchestra rehearsal each afternoon with Jim Bates to work on our concert pieces. Mornings began with sectional practices, to go over the trickiest parts of our en masse music. Many of our morning and afternoon workshops had us bringing the instruments out again. And after the scheduled activities ended, people would join Toni’s nightly sight-reading or maybe take part in impromptu jams or readings.
An unusual evening activity at this convention was a participative playing experience called In C, by Terry Riley. Jim Bates conducted us and kept the rhythm for this “minimalist” piece, in which each person plays a sequence of 53 melodic patterns, working through the sequence at his or her own pace. This turns into a haunting, hypnotic sound, with dramatic changes of tempo and dynamics. One player described it as very freeing to play with so few constraints. I found the experience mesmerizing and absorbing and was sorry to have it end.
Performing: This is the part of playing where you have an audience. Those of us who cared to had plenty of opportunities to perform.
Noon-hour concerts (and one of the evening ones) featured several orchestras whose members were in attendance. Saturday’s open mic had soloists and larger groups, and I thought the standard of performance was high. Are we getting better, or attracting better players?
Charley Rappaport conducting members of the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra and woodwinds - Photo by Roger Price
Seven of our best and bravest players, in fact, competed as soloists in the tenth annual playing competition, judged by Jim Bates, Carlo Aonzo and Toni Nigrelli. These performances were at a very high standard. Honorable Mention went to Bob Margo of Boston; third place to David Miller of Southington, CT; second place to Gordon Neidinger of Pittsburgh (one of our scholarship recipients, and a student of Charlie Rappaport); and first place to Keizo Ishibashi from Japan, currently living in New York City, who performed two pieces he had also composed.
Playing Competition Winners - Photo by Roger Price
Our biggest chance to perform is in the annual En Masse Orchestra concert program, and this year’s was one of the biggest, if not the biggest group ever, with close to 150 players on stage. The concert was held, not at our hotel, but in the Kraushaar Auditorium of nearby Goucher College. Kraushaar holds 994 people and was filled to capacity. We had a huge stage, great acoustics and lighting, and a rapt and appreciative audience. BMO member Roger Price was an excellent emcee for this event.
En Masse Orchestra, Jim Bates Concductor - Photo by Roger Price
The concert opened with a charming set by 32 local children who are participants in the Mandolin for Kids program. Led by Laura Norris, they played a short program of familiar tunes, accompanied by a singer and a guitarist. The kids sat in “pods” of four players, and Laura moved among the pods to provide direction as needed.
Baltimore Mando Kids - Photo by Roger Price
The BMO played next. This was the last concert for conductor David Evans after 30 years with BMO, 25 as their conductor. Chris Acquavella followed with a flawless set, different material from his earlier noon-hour set for us.
Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra - Photo by Arthur Benjamin
After the intermission came the main event: us! Our program was: Ben Hur overture - by Aubrey Stauffer, Lied Ohne Worte (Song without words) - by Felix Mendelssohn, Hues of Dusk - by Victor Kioulaphides, Swimming Down the Stars - by Jonathan Jensen of the BMO and Baltimore Symphony, Ceilidh (5 movements) - by Elke Tober-Vogt (with vocalist Beatrice Gilbert on the Barbara Allen movement, and local guest artists Joseph Cunliffe on tin whistle and David Johnson on percussion) Czardas d’Amour - by Gaston Jean and Maurice Saint-Paul.
Covering a wide range of ages and styles, from Mendelssohn’s 1830 piano piece, through the 1906 “Golden Age” Ben Hur to modern compositions, our music was well-chosen to provide technical challenges to stretch any level of player, and still to be generally within our capabilities and sound good to an audience. Jim Bates and our sectional leaders did a fine job of moulding us over the few days we had together. This is such a satisfying experience that you want to keep coming back for more.
The camaraderie of being in the continent’s largest gathering of classical mandolinists, the satisfaction of stretching one’s limits, the joy of hearing our instrument played so well and meeting those who can do it – these are the reasons to come to, and return to, CMSA conventions.
Swimming Down the Stars -- CMSA En Masse Orchestra 2011
Radim Zenkl, the Czech-born, California-based magician of the mandolin has been on the road and onstage since he arrived in the USA more than twenty years ago. He recently swung through my hometown of Portland, Oregon and performed his eclectic solo show to a packed house of enthusiastic fans.
Rio Con Brio started out to make one CD. As they recorded tracks, they realized they had two albums on their hands. One is their third choro album, the other is the debut of fado singer Alexandra Coutinho.
If you were there, you’ll agree that the Baltimore host team put on an excellent convention for our quarter-century landmark. With so many people attending, the energy level was high. If you weren’t there, you want to know what you missed. Here are some highlights.
James "Yank" Rachell was the primary exponent of blues mandolin, although he also played guitar, violin, harp and sang expertly well.
To create a violin with the same characteristics as the 1704 instrument known as "Betts," Dr. Sirr worked with professional violin makers John Waddle and Steve Rossow of St. Paul, Minn. They used a CT scanner and a CNC router. Here are a few photos.
Recently, Cheryl Watson released a CD called Watertown. She unplugged her Fender Tele and turned to acoustic guitars. She traded a guitar for her first mandolin. Chloe, her cat, listen with the eyes closed when Cheryl plays the mandolin.
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.
Alon Sariel is young, gifted and busy. He is one of those remarkable guys from the Beer Sheva Mandolin Orchestra in Israel. This Friday he appears in Cambridge, UK, to teach in the Cambridge Performance Masterclasses.
Conference. College. Genre bazaar. Horizon expander. Mandolinirvana. Musical family reunion. An ear-stretching, soul-filling, life-altering immersion experience. Surely, we must be talking about the Mandolin Symposium.
Nigel Forster is a luthier. He has a lot of thoughts about his trade. One book is not enough space for his thoughts. He willingly shares more thoughts.
Jim Richter is inviting all to his 1st annual Jim Richter rock-n-blues mandolin camp. He hopes it'll approach mandolin instruction from a perspective more immediately beneficial and useful than some workshops. He also has top ten advices for beginners.
"Enjoy." This quiet word, unheard by the expectant audience behind him, flew straight from the conductor's lips to the hearts of 35 mandolin, mandola, and mandocello players. Instantly, the chemistry in a Chelsea rehearsal room in the middle of New York City was altered - a subtle change, but the perfect one.
Raffaele Calace released his mandolin method in 1910. Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg have reissued his work in English, 100 years later.
He found way to combine Finnish traditional music and Brasilian choro. An unique flavour of choro was born.
Los Hermanos Cubero, The Cubero Brothers, live in Lliçà d'Amunt, a small town near Barcelona in Catalunya, Spain. Combining their folk music with bluegrass is a natural consequence of their influences.
French rock star Feloche has created his own cajun universe. It's rooted in his Urban Bajou.
"Oi, Druzil here," he presents himself, "The Dread Pirate Druzil is the resident mandolin, banjo, and tin whistle player in the world travelling band of raving drunken lunatics and purveyors of fine clusterfolk known as the Dreadnoughts."
Tim O'Brien is a traveller. He wants to get off the road and write and produce more.
Mandolin Cafe was launched November 18, 1995. The number one mandolin site is celebrating 15 years.
The education of the fashionable girl is not complete nowadays until she has secured a certain degree of proficiency in playing upon one or more of the popular string instruments.