Drigo background

From Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, vol. 2. Also, lots on Wikipedia, including pictures of one of the harlequins. http://www.answers.com/topic/riccardo-drigo

Drigo, Riccardo, Italian composer and conductor; b. Padua, June 30, 1846; d. there, Oct. 1, 1930. He studied

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music in Padua and Venice, then conducted opera in Venice and Milan. In 1879 he was engaged to conduct the Italian opera in St. Petersburg; in 1886 became permanent ballet conductor of the Imperial Theater there. He conducted first performances of Tchaikovsky's ballets The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. After Tchaikovsky's death, Drigo ed. the score of the ballet Swan Lake and orchestrated a number of Tchaikovsky's piano pieces. Drigo's own ballets, melodious and easy to listen to, also enjoyed excellent success in Russia. Particularly popular was his ballet Les Millions d'Arlequin, which includes the famous Serenade for a soulful cello solo and the ingratiating Valse bluette. Drigo conducted the first performance of this ballet in St. Petersburg on Feb. 10, 1900. From 1914 to 1916 he was in Italy, from 1916 to 1920 again in St. Petersburg, finally returning to Italy.

BIBL.: S. Travaglia, R. D., L'uomo e l'artista (Padua, 1929). —NS/LK/DM

Mandolin Symposium Lite - Mike Marshall, Caterina Lichtenberg

Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg are doing a workshop near Wichita,KS July 8-10.

Caterina is an amazing player and great teacher. She'll blow you away.

Mike is similarly great in a different way.

http://www.cmatb.org/campsfull.php?campid=19

I'm definitely considering this!

email about Jay

I got this today:

> From: Margaret Ingle
> Subject: About former mandolin player Jacob

. . .

> It would be wonderful if you or a couple of people from
> your group could visit with him and give him an opportunity
> to play. Please reply to
> this email or contact me at 952-546-6342 if you think you
> can arrange a time to visit with him. The nursing home
> is in St. Louis Park.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Maggie Ingle

Palladio

OK, I'm a Palladio addict now. It ranks up there with Jota as an audience-pleaser. But I think we can take it up a notch in speed. Maybe just 10%? They say that a difference isn't noticeable until 15%. If you search YouTube for Palladio, you'll notice that most other performers play this quite a bit faster. Can we do it? Probably!

MMO plays Palladio on YouTube

This is the Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra's first appearance on YouTube. Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bK3S4Og204

Anne, thanks for getting the video posted.

Palladio

There are several versions of Palladio on YouTube, and this is probably my favorite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFyEfLmY8NA

Thanks to Dave's daughter for videoing our version of Palladio on Sunday with my camera. I've downloaded it at work, and a co-worker is going to help me put it on YouTube (I don't wanna set up an account). To my knowledge, this will be the first YouTube video of the MMO. Maybe we can have Gypsy Moon or another tune recorded later. If anyone else has a YouTube account, please let me know.

I was also excited to see another mandolin orchestra on YouTube playing Bohemian Rhapsody, but it's not a good arrangement in my opinion.

"On the Mill Dam" March 8

I'd like to play "On the Mill Dam" on March 7. Parts are available here:

http://www.minnesotamandolinorchestra.org/millparts.pdf

It's one pdf that has all the parts, so you can open the file and print the two pages that contain your part. I'll have a few paper copies of the parts on Monday, but I'm hoping most people can print their own from the pdf.