For your listening pleasure.  This is hilarious and a very talented guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAYccibw5V4&fbclid=IwAR1ZdQxxZDWGD295iDeOcL3SE_d1pc3LBrbsPUj4ueWmQBBr_nIhF2LpBxw

Lou

SAP Arts Festival 2020 Canceled

The Saint Anthony Park Arts Festival, originally scheduled for Saturday, June 6, has been canceled. That means another canceled mandolin orchestra concert. We'll wait and see about the other concerts on our schedule.

Hamamatsu Municipal High School Mandolin Club plays Cobalt Blue Miracle

I can't listen to a mandolin orchestra in person now, but I can listen to mandolin orchestras on youtube. I watched this performance of Rie Muto's Cobalt Blue Miracle more than once today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ3myqkCSLc

No Lyngblomsten

I wish we could play our previously scheduled concert at Lyngblomsten tonight. Stay healthy, everyone. I hope we can play music together again soon.

Kalamazoo and Lansing

I drove to Lansing, Michigan last week to visit Elderly Instruments, the music store.  On the way I stopped in Kalamazoo and visited the old Gibson factory at 225 Parsons St., vacated in the early 80s when the company moved to Nashville.  The Heritage Guitar Company uses part of the space now to build excellent Gibson-style electric guitars.

Elderly, in a former schoolhouse, has hundreds of guitars, and an adequate mandolin selection:

Can't stop playing this

Lady Templeton's Clog may be found in Ryan's Mammoth Collection - I've memorized it, on mandolin and guitar - maybe some of you will have fun with this.  Key of F, more than a two octave range...  I'm trying to transpose it to different keys by ear.  Playing it in Bb on mandolin is still beyond me. 

RSVP Site Updates

I updated the RSVP sites today for MMO and BYNRIE.  For new members, I will be creating accounts and invitations for you today or tomorrow.

If you run into problems at either RSVP site, please email me.

The updates include:

• MMO and BYNRIE instances share password and email information.  If you have accounts on both, I copied the login information from old MMO site to the new version.
• You can log in with your name from the roster, or with your email from the roster.
• Your login credentials (user name and password) are sticky, so you don't need to sign in again if you've used the site within the past month.
• The Italian-flag heat bar indicating group response totals has the affirmative and negative response counts in text.
• Security updates from the open-source community

Thanks for helping Lon and I plan for performances,
Jonathan

Preliminary set list for March 30-April 21

Here is a preliminary set list for our concerts on March 30, April 6, April 13, and April 21:

Fanfare for Lon Hendricks
Cathedral Hill
Lullaby for Chris
Carousel
Waltz for Bill Monroe
Suite Marinaresca I & IV
And I Love Her
Please Please Me
Four on Six
Minneapolis March
May Polka
Benediction
Palladio

For the second year in a row, Stealin' Home is playing on Valentine's Day at Sneakers Pub & Eatery in Spring Valley, Wisconsin. Since our guitar player Don Brunnquell is off in New Zealand, my friend Jay Scoggin and I are being joined by Tate Ferguson for this gig. For those of you who have only heard Tate's mandolin playing in the MMO, this is a great opportunity to hear his equally excellent guitar playing. Tate will be handling about a third of lead vocal duties, too! Sneakers Pub & Eatery is located about one hour east of St. Paul at S119 S McKay Avenue, Spring Valley, Wisconsin 54767,(715) 778-4200. Apple or Google maps will get you there easily, but basically what you do is drive east on I94 to Spring Valley Exit 24, County Road B. Drive south 6.2 miles, then turn left on North Second Street. Drive east 2 miles to McKay Avenue. Turn right on McKay and Sneakers will be on your right. There will be Valentine's Day dinner and drink specials available and some pretty good music, to boot. We will start playing between 6:00 and 6:30, and will continue until 9:00 or so. We hope that some of you can make it!

2020 Elections... MMO Officer Elections!

We'll have MMO officer elections February 3.  I will leave paper ballots and some pens at the front desk of the Baha'i center to be collected after practice.  You may also email your selection to any officer prior to the February 3rd practice.  I'll tally the votes after pizza.

The current officer positions are held by:

• President: Tate
• Vice President: Dotty
• Secretary: Allison
• Treasurer: Jonathan

I nominate:

• President: Allison
• Vice President: Joy
• Secretary: Ben

Please email any current officer, or post to the blog, your nominations.

best wishes,

Jonathan