Mandolin Concerts of Note

**Daymando** · Mar-04-2006, 1:14pm

The DAYTON MANDOLIN ORCHESTRA Presents the Second-Annual:

*** March MARCH MADNESS and Other Musical Novelties ***

Join us for an enjoyable, casual program of delicious foot-tapping mandolin orchestra music, featuring marches, serenades, and other works by such notable composers as Joe Green, Wolfgang Mozart, Leroy Anderson, Irving Berlin, John P. Sousa ...and more!

SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 2006 -- 7:30 P.M.

SEARS RECITAL HALL
Jesse Phillips Humanities Center
University of Dayton
300 College Park, Dayton OH 45469

General Admission
Adults: $8.00 in advance - $10.00 at the door
Kids under 12: $4.00 in advance - $5.00 at the door

Reserve your seat -- and a seat for a friend! -- right here!

Seats are filling very quickly for this *once-a-year treat* -- Don't Miss It!

**Mark Levesque** · Mar-10-2006, 5:03am

Sunday, March 12, 2006, 3-4 p.m.
BROOKFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY
182 Whisconier Road
Brookfield, CT
(203) 775-6241
Duo Concert.

**Alex Timmerman** · Mar-10-2006, 7:11pm

Hello friends,

**Alex Timmerman** · Mar-10-2006, 7:13pm

You are all invited!

**John Craton** · Mar-13-2006, 9:34am

Great photo, Alex. I recognize you on the far right, and I believe that's Ferdinand opposite left. Who are the rest of the orchestra members?

**Jonathan** · Mar-13-2006, 11:31pm

I'm pleased to announce that the Baltimore Mandolin Quartet is playing a concert
at Central Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, this Sunday March the 19th at 4 o'clock. #Raffaele Calace's Danza Spagnola will lead off the program, and Carlo Munier will be represented by his Quartet No. 1 in C major and his transcription of music from Donizetti's Lucia da Lammermoor. #My own arrangements of the Quartet from Verdi's Rigoletto, Dance of the Blessed Spirits by Gluck, Canzonetta from Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Maidens' Dance from Khachaturian's Gayane ballet will be featured, among others. #The church is at 7308 York Rd. Baltimore MD 21204, and their web site can be found at centralpres. Come on out and make us more nervous than we already are!

Jonathan Jensen

**Mark Levesque** · Mar-15-2006, 4:53pm

We are playing around Indianapolis and Chicago next week, and would love to meet (and talk mandolins and guitars) if you can attend.

Sunday, March 19, 2006, 7:00 p.m.
THE BEAN BLOSSOM MUSIC SERIES
Saint David's Episcopal Church
Bean Blossom, IN

Thursday, March 23, 2006, 8:00 p.m.
COMMON CAUSE/IN & CENTRAL INDIANA JOBS WITH JUSTICE BENEFIT CONCERT
All Souls Unitarian Church
5805 East 56th Street
Indianapolis, IN

Friday, March 24, 2006, 8:00 p.m.
RAINBOW'S END CONCERT SERIES
7574 North Lincoln Ave.
Skokie, IL
(847) 677-3334

Sunday, March 26, 2006, 4:00 p.m.
BYRON COLBY BARN
Prairie Crossing
1016 Harris Road
Grayslake, IL
(847) 548-5400

Monday, March 27, 2006, 7:00 p.m.
FREMONT PUBLIC LIBRARY
1170 North Midlothian Road
Mundelein, IL
(847) 566-8702
www.fremontlibrary.org

**Alex Timmerman** · Mar-16-2006, 7:48am

Hello All,

I am proud to announce an interesting concert that we will give on the afternoon of April 1st. Special it is because we will premiere two works composed by our "own" John Craton and Victor Kioulaphides. And even more special it will be because John will be with us to hear his beautiful composition The Legend of Princess Noccalula performed by Sebastiaan de Grebber and The CONSORT.

You can find more information at our website. Click here.

For those who can't be there don't worry, there will be a new CD of The CONSORT on which both works - as well as Victor's Concerto per Orchestra a Pizzico will be recorded.

Many greetings from all of us!
And especially for John: we look forward to meet you and be sure you are very welcome!

Alex.

**vkioulaphides** · Mar-16-2006, 8:35am

Alas, by now it is definite that I will not be able to attend; my next visit to Alex & Co., and the lovely Netherlands, will have to wait... The reasons are complex and hinging on all sorts of personal/professional matters, which belong rather to a private e-mail, not a public forum. Even by my own, chatty standards, *some* decorum should be adhered to.

All the same: I will be there in spirit, wishing Alex, Sebastiaan, Het Consort, and my esteemed colleague John Craton all the success they deserve.

Victor

**Jim Garber** · Mar-16-2006, 8:35am

Originally Posted by (Alex @ Mar. 16 2006, 07:48)

For those who can't be there don't worry, there will be a new CD of The CONSORT on which both works - as well as Victor's Concerto per Orchestra a Pizzico will be recorded.

Alex:
As one who perpetually cannot be there (one day, for sure!) I am very happy to hear fo the new Consort recording. Keep us posted.

Jim

**John Craton** · Mar-18-2006, 4:41pm

Originally Posted by (Alex @ Mar. 16 2006, 07:48)

And especially for John: we look forward to meet you and be sure you are very welcome!

Indeed, I am looking forward great anticipation to meeting everyone on that side of the pond. I feel it only fair to warn those who plan to attend, however, that some of my distant distant relatives may be in the audience. (Yes, we're everywhere - there are even Creyghtons/Creijghtons in the Netherlands.) Hopefully they will be better behaved than their American counterparts

It will be a great honor for me to meet Alex, Sebastiaan, Ferdinand, Eva, and the entire CONSORT in person. That's not to mention Anahi Oraison and her string quartet as well. Should be lots of fun! (I think my wife is looking forward to the quiet back home too.)

**Neil Gladd** · Mar-20-2006, 10:42pm

I finally heard the Baltimore Mandolin Quartet in concert yesterday, before a large, enthusiastic audience. The program included Calace's Danza Spagnola and Munier's arrangement of tunes from Lucia da Lammermoor, but the big piece was Munier's quartet in C. The rest of the program was arrangements and a few original pieces by mandola player Jonathan Jensen (of Mandolin Cafe fame).

The ensemble playing was very good, and consistantly very musical. 1st mandolinist David Evans played one piece on the much-maligned Calace Lyre-Mandolin, and I have to say that it sounded great, and projected better than the Calace mandolin he used for the rest of the concert. He said afterwards that it was weird to play, so I tried it myself and it is weird. 2nd mandolinist Laura Norris also had a beautiful tremolo on her 1920s Vinaccia.

The performers couldn't hang around afterwards for long, as they had to play another concert with the Baltimore Mandolin Orchestra, but I hope to visit with them more in the near future. Two thumbs up!

**margora** · Mar-21-2006, 2:35pm

The Providence Mandolin Orchestra will give an encore performance of Victor Kioulaphides' concerto for mandolin orchestra this Friday, March 24, 7 PM at the "Spring Fling" (plucked strings) music festival, in Mansfield MA, held at the Holiday Inn, 31 Hampshire Street, in Mansfield. Also on the program will be works by Assad, Gal, Hartford, Mandonico, and others.

**vkioulaphides** · Mar-21-2006, 3:23pm

*WOW!*

A few years ago, it so happened —out of no effort or forethought by Yours Truly— that three of my operas were running in the same season. Still, it has NEVER happened that the same WORK of mine should be performed on one and the same DAY—#on different sides of the Atlantic!

Long live the mandolin!

Cheers,

Victor

P.S. As you may know, Bob, Mark and I are already making further, *diabolical* plans for the future... But that, of course, is in the pre-cooking stage.

**JimD** · Mar-30-2006, 11:03am

Hi folks,

Not strictly classical -- John McGann's newly-composed quartet is on the program for his Berklee faculty recital. The quartet will be played by John (octave mandolin), Joe Walsh (mandolin), Adam Larrabee (mandocello) and me (mandolin).

There will be a great variety of other music on the program as well.

Here are the details.

**vkioulaphides** · Mar-30-2006, 11:45am

[QUOTE]"Not strictly classical..."

Well, Jim, none of us is that.

Sounds like a quartetto classico to me... (in fact, I know that Carlo Aonzo has been playing mine in Italy with essentially the same instruments you enumerate, with the only nomenclatural difference of European-type mandola for the octave mandolin. Same difference...)

Best of success! Wish I could be there...

Cheers, (and two thumbs up)

Victor

**margora** · Mar-30-2006, 12:00pm

"Not strictly classical -- John McGann's newly-composed quartet is on the program for his Berklee faculty recital. The quartet will be played by John (octave mandolin), Joe Walsh (mandolin), Adam Larrabee (mandocello) and me (mandolin). There will be a great variety of other music on the program as well."

I expect to be there.

**JimD** · Mar-30-2006, 12:08pm

Originally Posted by

I expect to be there.

--------------
Robert A. Margo

I'll look forward to seeing you. Maybe we can finally set up a time to get together and play some duets.

**JimD** · Mar-30-2006, 12:12pm

Originally Posted by

Sounds like a quartetto classico to me... (in fact, I know that Carlo Aonzo has been playing mine in Italy

Victor,

I'd love to get a copy of your quartet -- I have enjoyed playing your solo mandolin pieces and chamber music w/guitar.

and, I have been playing with some excellent mando folks lately...

**vkioulaphides** · Mar-30-2006, 12:15pm

Well, Jim... watch what you ask for; you might actually get it!

I am currently finishing up my fifth quartetto classico, and would gladly send you all five, as soon as this latest one is proofread and fair-copied. In fact, I have slowly been building up a "hit-list" (currently up to a healthy dozen-or-so) of recipients of my Haydnesque sixpack. I hope to thereby generate some impetus for both the genre and the medium.

Cheers,

Victor

**Eugene** · Mar-30-2006, 11:36pm

Originally Posted by (vkioulaphides @ Mar. 30 2006, 11:45)

Well, Jim, none of us is that. #

Sounds like a quartetto classico to me...

Well, close, if you replace the tenor instrument from G (under any name) with the alto instrument from c.

**Eugene** · Mar-30-2006, 11:38pm

Originally Posted by (JimD @ Mar. 30 2006, 11:03)

Hi folks,

Not strictly classical -- John McGann's newly-composed quartet is on the program for his Berklee faculty recital. The quartet will be played by John (octave mandolin), Joe Walsh (mandolin), Adam Larrabee (mandocello) and me (mandolin).

There will be a great variety of other music on the program as well.

Here are the details.

Man, I'd love to see. Please pass my greetings to Adam...and everybody else too...even though I haven't met everybody else. Is Adam playing that wacky cowboy-esque beast cello?

**vkioulaphides** · Mar-31-2006, 8:24am

[QUOTE] "Well, close, if you replace the tenor instrument from G (under any name) with the alto instrument from c. "

True. The line does get a bit blurred in practice, though... For example, while I started by sending out alto-clef parts, as extracted from the score, waaaaaaaaay back when I wrote my Nº 1

it was Carlo A. who first suggested that I also make an alternative part for the third-from-the-top instrument (no names mentioned), as that is what he and his colleagues use, in octave-treble clef.

Hence the continuing duality, in my own works at least. Of course, the instrument I have always meant need not go below C, so the usual, viola-tuned mandola is just right. Even at that, the alternative, octave-treble part has come handy, as some CGDA-mandola players still prefer it to alto. It's all, of course, perfecty OK with me.

**margora** · Mar-31-2006, 9:54am

I went to John McGann's concert last night, a lot of fun. The program began with an energetic performance of his quartet #2 (mando #1, #2, octave mandolin and mandocello). To answer Eugene's question first("Is Adam playing that wacky cowboy-esque beast cello?"), yes. The music was a mixture of diverse styles, with some exciting improvised sections. The cafe's Jim Dalton performed on mandolin in his usual stellar manner in this piece (the other mandolinist, also a fine player, was Joe Walsh, a student at Berklee). Next up were a couple of Django-style tunes, with Matt Glaser and Aaron Weinstein on Grapelli-esque violin; here Mr. McGann played guitar and mandolin, sounding appropriately Djangoesque. The concert closed with several evocative tunes by his group "The Wayfaring Strangers", sort of bluegrass with strong jazz overtones. As a player, Mr. McGann has refined rhythmic and harmonic sensibilties combined with a very fluid left hand, most evident on octave mandolin.

**JimD** · Mar-31-2006, 11:25am

Thanks Robert!

John's music was quite enjoyable to play and he, Adam and Joe were a great pleasure to work with. I was glad the quartet was up first so that I could get out into the audience and enjoy the rest of the program.

Originally Posted by

wacky cowboy-esque beast cello

This qualifies as redundancy, doesn't it? Every 'cello I've seen, heard or played has been a "wacky beast" of one kind or another. I suppose the qualifier "cowboy-esque" could refer only to Adam's instrument (at least in my experience).

My own wacky beast is a Gibson-esque instrument with bad glue joints that looks like the maker's idea of "finishing" was to dip the thing in a giant vat of Minwax and wipe off SOME of the excess with a not very clean paper towel and leave it to dry in a dusty place -- returning now and then to check the drying process by touching the not-yet-dry instrument and leaving decorative fingerprints.

Sounds nice, though.