C. J. Levin, American virtuoso mandolinist

[jblanchard]

Does that name sound familiar to you? Charles Jerome Levin, classical virtuoso mandolinist and teacher from Baltimore. He performed ca. 1895-1915. Does anyone have any information on him? I'd like to hear from you if you do. Thanks.

Jim Blanchard
Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra

[Jim Garber]

Hey Jim: just curious where did you see his name?

[NEH57]

You have probably found this, but here, below, is a reference. It is a shame that a gentleman, who was presumably his son C.J. Levin Jr, from Baltimore, who sounds like he was a wonderful chap, passed away recently and was a musician and more particularly a mandolin player..
There are lot's of references on-line to the 'Jr' who may have surviving family locally.

There are references to Snr in the Baltimore University archives but the links are broken.

This link apparently takes you to an article where Snr is mentioned, but you need to subscribe to the Baltimore Sun pages to read it ? It may just be a music tutor advert as opposed to anything informative.
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/214528658/

"The instrument was an instant hit and the early American pioneers were Charles J. Levin of Baltimore, Samuel Adelstein of San Francisco, C.H. Pomeroy of Salt Lake City, Valentin Abt of Pittsburgh and Samuel Siegel of Des Moines, all of them of Jewish origin. In 1885 the mail order company Montgomery Ward did not sell mandolins but by 1890 it was reporting that sales of mandolins had more than doubled in comparison to previous years. From that year onwards several American instrument firms began producing mandolins, the largest of these companies, Lyon & Healy of Chicago, created the popular "Washburn" line and by 1894 was producing more than 7000 a year. In 1897 Montgomery Ward was speaking in terms of a "phenomenal growth" in mandolin sales, while Sears dedicated two pages of its catalogue to the instrument (by 1905 this had increased to six). During the same period, Orville Gibson, an instrument-maker working in Kalamazoo, Michigan, redesigned the instrument by applying violin-making techniques: his new mandolins had a fuller, deeper sound and many were asymmetrical, their designs inspired by the new Liberty style. Around 1910 the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Company began an aggressive marketing campaign, launching its own line covering the entire family of plectrum instruments, from the mandolin to the mandobass. The names Larson, Maurer, Gibson, Martin and W.C. Stahl (a Milwaukee publisher who backed a competition to build a new kind of mandolin and also wrote two ragtime-marches for mandolin orchestra) also reflect the European influence on the spread of the mandolin."
Full article
http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/blurbs...nguage=English

[jblanchard]

Hey Jim: just curious where did you see his name?

Hi Jim,
I'm doing some research on early mandolin groups in Baltimore and I came across his name in the old Baltimore newspapers. He was quite a prominent mandolin soloist, teacher and conductor in Baltimore during those years I mentioned. His grandson plays guitar in our orchestra now, but, unfortunately, he doesn't have too much info on his grandfather.

[jblanchard]

Hello NEH57,
Thanks for your response. I have seen those old ads at newspapers.com that C. J. Levin took out for mandolin instruction. And I've also seen the article you quoted. I guess that's what sparked my interest in Levin - his name being associated with Adelstein, Pomeroy, Abt, Siegel. And his name was also mentioned in a 1909 ad for Vega mandolins and guitars along with Abt, Pettine, Siegel. He's not mentioned in editions of Bone's "The Guitar and Mandolin, Biographies of Celebrated Players and Composers." I'm hoping there's some information about him from other sources out there. (I have the obit for Charles J. Levin, Jr., too.)