January 12 concert

Here's a preliminary set list for our concert on Sunday evening, January 12.

• Young America
• Here, There, and Everywhere
• This Boy
• For J. L.
• Lilacs Suite
• Poets in Time
• Oblivion
• Evolution Rag
• Jesse Polka
• Concerto Alla Rustica
• Je te veux
• Plink, Plank, Plunk!
• Equity
• Boston Ideal March

I think those selections will all be successful, but we can make adjustments to the list at our January 6 rehearsal if necessary.

60-plus-year-old Harmony archtop guitar: anybody interested?

Before I put it up for sale on eBay, might any MMO guitar players be interested in acquiring my Harmony Broadway archtop acoustic guitar, with hard case?  Research indicates this variation was built between 1944 and 1951.  Let me know!  - Tate

World-class Guitar+Cello concert Thursday evening, Nov 21

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!  These two are great players. They also consistently put together interesting programs of music.  Their concerts are always a lot of fun besides showcasing world-class musicianship.  It seems almost unreasonable that one can hear such great performances FOR FREE!! - Ray

Dances and Melodies of Spain and Latin America in the Library’s Great Hall -- St. Thomas Univ, St. Paul campus, Thursday Nov 21, 7 PM

“It's music like you've (almost) never heard it before . . .”

The Arpeggione Duo of guitarist Dr. Christopher Kachian and cellist Dr. Thomas Schönberg will perform in the Great Hall, located on the second floor of O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library Center on the St. Paul campus of the University of St. Thomas.  The duo will perform a variety of pieces from Spain, Ecuador, Brazil, and Argentina.

This marks the second time the library¹s Great Hall, noted for its excellent acoustics, stained-glass windows and vaulted ceiling, will be used for a concert.

Schönberg and Kachian, who are educators as well as performers, formed the Arpeggione Duo after meeting at the Guitar Festival of Sollentuna, Sweden, in 2004.
They tour annually and have recorded three albums. Samples can be heard here http://www.arpeggioneduo.com/

Schönberg is a native of Sweden and was accepted to the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm at age 13.  He received his doctorate at the University of Hartford, Conn., and is dean of the Lidingo School of Music in Sweden. He performs throughout Europe, Asia and the United States on a Guarnerius cello built in 1711.

Kachian, whose doctorate is from the University of Minnesota, heads the Guitar Studies Program at St. Thomas and in 2011 was inducted into the renowned Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity<http://www.sai-national.org/>.  A champion of new music, he has commissioned and premiered more than 30 works for guitar.  He has given more than 500 performances in Japan, China, Africa, Cuba, Costa Rica, Peru and throughout Europe and North America. Kachian is a founding member of the Society for the Affectation of Baroque Music and also plays the blues harmonica.

Refreshments will be served. For information call (651) 962-5014.

Happy Birthday Mando Orch style

I came across this while searching for a happy birthday greeting. Pretty cool arrangement.

No rehearsal November 11

There is no Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra rehearsal on Monday, November 11. We'll be back at the usual location the following Monday, November 18.

Blogger invitations

I just noticed that we have several members who are not listed as blog authors, so I sent out a batch of blogger invitations. If you get something in the mail about blogger and are wondering if it's legitimate, it is. Anyone can read the blog, but only invited authors can post.

"The Gold Rush" Sunday

Not mandolin related. Just for fun.

On Sunday, October 20, at 2:00, Aaron Miller will accompany Charlie Chaplin's "The Gold Rush" on the Fisk organ at House of Hope Presbyterian Church, 797 Summit Avenue in Saint Paul. Here's the blurb from the House of Hope web site:

On Sunday, October 20, Aaron David Miller will provide live organ accompaniment for the classic Charlie Chaplin silent film, The Gold Rush. House of Hope’s organist and Director of Music, Aaron David Miller is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning organist and improvisationist, who has performed around the world and across the U.S.A., as well as on radio and television. He brings his astonishing talent and wonderful humor to this unique experience. If you were fortunate enough to attend a similar event two years ago, featuring Chaplin’s film The Circus, you know that this rare and wildly entertaining event is not to be  missed! The Sunday Series is free and open to the public at 2 p.m. in the Sanctuary.

"E"xercises for September 16

On September 16, we're going to play the "E"xercises from the sheet we used last fall. If you still have a copy, please take it to the rehearsal with you. If you don't have one, you can get one here:
www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/e-xercises-2.pdf

Correction: We used the "E"xercises sheet in the summer, not the fall. It was July 8.

Matt Flinner workshop at the Homestead

Matt Flinner will be doing a three-hour mandolin workshop at the Homestead Pickin' Parlor on Saturday, September 21, starting at 1:00 p.m.

More information at http://homesteadpickinparlor.com/matt-flinner-mandolin-workshop-saturday-september-21-100-pm/

Any volunteers to host a party?

Monday, August 26 would be a good date for our annual MMO end-of-season party. Any volunteers to host and organize?

Lilacs practice file

I made a synthesized practice file for the Lilacs Suite, using the tempos that I wrote down on June 24. You can find it at http://www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/lilacs-92-112-92.mp3. I don't think we'll really play it that fast.

July 8 rehearsal

Please remember to go to 4820 Elliot Avenue South, rather than our usual place, for our July 8 rehearsal.

For warm-ups, we'll play some some excersises that I wrote out in the key of E. If you're near a printer, please print a copy of www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/e-xercises-2.pdf and take it to the reheasal with you.

Looking for Senior Center Performers

Today I received a call from Mindy at The Crossings at Brookwood. They are a 55+ residence in Brooklyn Center. They are looking for performers (solos, duets, quartets, whatever ya got) to perform on Wednesday nights at their facility. Please contact Mindy directly at (763) 561-7405 if you are interested. We didn't discuss remuneration so your on your own there. I told Mindy I would put her on our Fall and Spring tour list for the entire MMO.

Summer concert music

I made a set list for our summer park concerts:

Young America
Here, There, and Everywhere
This Boy
For J. L.
The Lilacs Suite
Lonely Woman Waltz
Poets in Time
Swimming Down the Stars
Lucky Penny
That Banjo Rag
Concerto alla Rustica
Carolan's Draught
Canzonetta
Plink, Plank, Plunk!
Ave Maria
Little Rock Getaway
Blaze-away

Music for June 3

These are the tunes for our June 3 rehearsal:

Plink, Plank, Plunk!
Parts are here: http://www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/plink-parts.pdf

For J.L. - last played in 2005
Parts are here: http://www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/for-j-l-parts.pdf

Lilacs Suite - new music from Sherry
Parts are here: http://www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/lilacs-parts.pdf

Lonely Woman - new music from Gordy
Gordy will distribute parts on June 3

Carolan's Draught and Others - last played in 2007
I don't have pdfs. Please check your files.

Ave Maria rev. 1.1
Parts are here: http://www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/ave-maria-parts.pdf

No concert May 13

Our concert at the Minnesota Veterans Home, originally scheduled for May 13, has been canceled. We'll have a regular rehearsal on that date, and try to find another time to play at the Veterans Home.

Saint Anthony Park Arts Festival update

The Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra festival is scheduled to play at 1:00 p.m. on the Luther Stage on Saturday June 1.

More information about the arts festival is here:
http://www.stanthonyparkartsfestival.org/

Saint Anthony Park Arts Festival June 1

Thanks, everybody, for responding to my query about an MMO performance at the Saint Anthony Park Arts Festival. It's a go. You can put Saturday, June 1 on your calendar. Our time slot is not yet determined, but I'll let you know as soon as I know. I think it will be in the afternoon.

No rehearsal April 29

There will be no Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra rehearsal on Monday, April 29. We'll have our usual Monday rehearsal the following Monday, May 6.

Wings Monday

Our annual MMO post-concert Wild Wings expedition will be this Monday, April 15. After the Rose Pointe concert, everyone is welcome to have some wings and beverages at Buffalo Wild Wings' new Roseville location, 1777 West County Road B2. It's on the north side of B2, across from Rosedale.

Pizza before Creekside

Rocky Rococo is at 7540 Brooklyn Blvd, less than a half mile from Creekside Gables. I'll be having pizza and bread sticks at Rocky's on April 8 before our Creekside gig, arriving around 5:15. Any Rocky's-craving MMO members are welcome to join me there.

Addendum to previous post

To be fair, I may have acquired an instrument with faulty electronics.  Either way, try before you buy.  Too bad there are so few mandolin shops in the TC.

FYI re Eastwood electric mandolin

(There was an email going around recently about electric mandos.)

For those who may be interested in the low-priced Eastwood brand solid-body electric mandolin, I bought a used one a few weeks ago.  It played great, but the pickups were the worst; noisy, low-output.  I thought about returning it, but by then I had already taken it apart.  It should be nice enough when I get done reworking the electronics, which I'm doing myself.

So for anyone who wants to know, the Eastwood is a nice enough player, but I suggest that you may not be happy with the sound coming from your amplifier.

Baroque Guitar/Lute Concert Sat Feb 16

I've been to concerts in this series before, and, besides being free, they are always great.  Location: St Thomas University (St. Paul campus); Time and date:  Sat, Feb 16, 8 PM.  The announcement and performer bios follow.  Also, you may park in the campus lots near the chapel since it is after hours.
-Ray Artz

SOCIETY FOR THE DOCTRINAL AFFECTATION OF BAROQUE MUSIC

GUEST ARTIST, Timothy Burris, archlute

Chris Kachian, guitar
David Jenkins, organ and harpsichord
Michelle Nordtorp-Madson, art historian

The Society for the Doctrinal Affectation of Baroque Music is dedicated to stylish performances of early musical artifacts with non-conventional instrumentation. The Society’s artistic mission is to arouse the elevated passions of modern audiences through elegant interpretations informed by the latest in historical discovery.



The Society submits for your worthy intellectual entertainment this concert of an all-Baroque program in St. Mary’s Chapel of The Saint Paul Seminary at the University of St. Thomas.

Address: 2260 Summit Ave. St. Paul MN on 16 February 2013 at 8PM.

Contact number: 651.962.5858.

Selections include the Bach French Suite for Guitar and Lute, the Vivaldi Concerto for Guitar, CPE Bach Sonata for organ, and a selection of archlute solos from the early to Middle Baroque by Zamboni, Galilei and Frescobaldi, for your gracious repast.

The admission, as always, is free.

Where good taste encounters the unusual—


CONTACT INFO
www.stthomas.edu/music<http://www.stthomas.edu/music>
962.5858

Society Program 2013

French Suite V                                                           J. S. Bach (1685-1750)
            Allemande
            Courante
            Sarabande
            Gavotte
            Bourrée
            Louré
            Gigue

Recitativo visivo

Toccata                                                                       Michelangelo Galilei (1575-1631)
Ceccona                                                                      Giovanni Zamboni (fl. 1718)
Toccata per Spinettina sola, over Liuto                   Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643)

Organ Sonata No. 6 in G Minor (1755)                  CPE Bach (1714-1788)
            Allegro moderato
            Adagio
            Allegro

Recitativo visivo

Concerto in D Major for Guitar and Continuo        Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)
            Allegro
            Largo
Allegro


Michelle Nordtorp-Madson, art historian, holds an MA in Art History and a Ph.D. in Design History from the University of Minnesota.  She received technical design training and her first art history education in Denmark, where she spent four years completing a nine-month immersion program in the Danish language.  At UST, she coordinates exhibitions and teaches courses in art history. Her current research interests focus on Medieval death culture, Medieval costume, artistic syncretism in Medieval Scandinavia, and Shape Shifters in Medieval Art and Literature.

Timothy Burris has performed throughout Europe and the US, both as a soloist and an accompanist. He has appeared in concert with such esteemed artists as the mezzo Jennifer Lane and the keyboardist Robert Hill, as well as under the baton of Peter Schreier and René Clemencic, among others. In a review of The Songs of Philip Rosseter, Part II, The Lute Society Magazine said of his skills as an accompanist: “Burris … plays with beautiful tone and is an absolutely first-class accompanist.”

In addition to solo recordings, he has done CD projects with Jennifer Lane and Tamara Matthews with New York Baroque; Willeke te Brummelstroete with Koorprojekt Rotterdam; Timothy Neill Johnson; and Ensemble Pentacost, among others. He can be heard playing Bach’s c minor Prelude in Shock Act, the prize-winning short-film DVD by Seth Grossman.

Mr Burris taught lute for six years at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp, and currently teaches at Colby College and the Portland Conservatory of Music (Maine).

His foreign-language talents include fluency in German, French, and Dutch, and excellent facility in Spanish and Italian. His linguistic skills enhance his abilities as an accompanist, as well as adding to his effectiveness in coaching singers and instrumentalists in educational events such as master classes. He has an especial interest in French poetry, something he nurtured during more than two years of private study with French professors at the universities of Amsterdam and Leiden. His dissertation research was done primarily at Dresden’s Sächsische Landesbibliothek, in the final stages with the generous support of a Fulbright fellowship (to the Technical University of Dresden).EDUCATION: Soloist’s diploma, Royal Conservatory, The Hague; Ph.D., Duke University
David Jenkins is liturgical music director at The Saint Paul Seminary in St. Paul Minnesota and the organ instructor for the music department at the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Jenkins has also taught organ and church music at St. John’s University in Collegeville. He earned the D.M.A. in organ performance and the Performer's Certificate from The Eastman School of Music, where he studied organ with Russell Saunders and harpsichord with Arthur Haas. He also studied organ with Grethe Krogh at the Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen under a Marshall Fellowship. His other teachers have included Delbert Disselhorst, Garth Peacock, and Howard Don Small. A specialist in keyboard music of the Baroque Era and Scandinavian organ music, he has preformed recitals in Denmark, Norway, and the U.S.

Christopher Kachian, guitarist, has performed throughout Europe, the Americas, South and Central America and the Far East, as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist. His American performances have included a significant number of works written in the last twenty-five years, many of them commissions. These include over thirty works for guitar including 20 concerti. He has written Composer's Desk Reference for the Classic Guitar in consultation with over 25 composers, published by Mel Bay Publications. He has been heard on Minnesota Public Radio, National Public Radio and American Public Media (including several appearances on A Prairie Home Companion).
Notable premiere recordings include Conrad Susa's Carols and Lullabies (RCA 1995), David Baker's Images, Shadows and Dreams (Collins Classics 1996 and Clarion as Dance Like the Wind, Music of Today’s Black Composers), Woodwind Music (Innova 1997), phoenix ensemble#1 (Valve-Hearts [Germany] 1998), Falls Flyer (10,000 Lakes 2002), Cyprus, First Impressions (Innova 2006), The J.S. Bach Sonatas for Gamba and Harpsichord for Guitar and Harpsichord by Chris Kachian and David Jenkins (2007), A Night in Vienna, (10, 000 Lakes 2011). With the Arpeggione Duo he has recorded Wanderer Sonata and Folklore (Ars Nova [Stockholm] 2006, 2009). Numerous other recordings of music ranging from blues to Christmas music are in his discography.
Since 1984, Dr. Kachian has directed one of the largest guitar programs in the USA at the University of St Thomas where he is professor of music. He has lectured in music of Europe, the Americas, the Twentieth-Century, the World, the United States, Film, Protest, Mathematics, and Guitar Pedagogy and Guitar Literature. He is the founder of the UST Music Business, Recording Arts, and the Popular Music degrees. 2001 - 2005, he served as Director of Guitar Studies for MMTA for whom he lead – authored and edited the nation’s first comprehensive, multi-genre guitar pedagogy syllabus. In 2011, he wrote the film score for Per Bianca, which won Best Film at the Minnesota 48-Hour Film Festival and won a screening at the Cannes Film Festival.
Recent notable USA premiere performances are Astor Piazzolla’s Double Concerto and Franz Schubert’s Arpeggione Sonata. The ongoing series of Baroque concerts, with keyboardist, David Jenkins, with the Society for the Doctrinal Affectation of Baroque Music, an early music ensemble and the Arpeggione Duo, a Stockholm-based cello and guitar duo specializing in new folk music, round out his concert career.
Rounding out his biography occurred in 2012 when he received national recognition by the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity as a National Arts Associate and Distinguished Member.

Some lovely playing here thought the photography made me a little dizzy. Eva is part of a group with her sisters called SHEL. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRFzpt0rp_E

Music for January 7

We'll play some new and old music on January 7:

Auld Lang Syne (just for fun)
available at http://minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/AuldLangSyne2.pdf

Simple Gifts
Please check your golden oldies file for parts

Lucky Penny
new, to be distributed at the rehearsal

Concerto alla Rustica

Blaze-away
Parts available at http://minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/blaze-away-parts.pdf

Poets in Time

Fantasy in Five Time

On the Mill Dam

Linda gravely ill

Please remember Linda in your thoughts and prayers. She is at Regions hospital in St. Paul, and is not expected to survive more than a few days.
She asked for people to pray for her in her last days, so that would be appreciated.

Dave