The Providence Mandolin Orchestra

We can also be found on FacebookReverbNation and YouTube.

Winter/Spring 2024

After a short holiday break, we resumed regular in-person rehearsals on Tuesday, January 2 (weather permitting, it is New England after all).  Visitors welcome, and we also have a ZOOM link for anyone interested in attending remotely (use the contact page if interested).    In addition to our upcoming concert on May 11 in Weymouth (see below),  we have a second concert confirmed the prior weekend, on May 5, at the Bread Box Theatre in Willimantic, CT; and a third on June 15, in collaboration with the Bristol (RI) Community Strings project (details forthcoming).

Fall 2023

We have begun weekly rehearsals for our new season.   So far, we have one confirmed concert, in late spring 2024, but we expect to add additional concerts soon.  We rehearse on Tuesday evenings, 7:30-9:30 PM, at the Studio One RI Dance Complex, 85 Industrial Circle, Lincoln RI. 

This fall we worked extensively on Chagall’s Mandolins, Abendmusik, and Eclipse, a beatufiul concerto for mandola (in G, a.k.a. octave mandolin) and mandolin orchestra by the Austrailian composer Michelle Nelson.   We continued to refine our performance of Fran Trester’s Three Movements, with the aim of playing the entire suite soon in concert; and we reviewed Mark Armstrong’s arrangment of the first movement of Laurindo Almeida’s first guitar concerto.

Concerts, 2023-2024 Season

May 5, 2024.  Bread Box Theatre, 220 Valley St, Willimantic CT, 4 PM, tickets $20, available at the door or here.

May 11, 2024. Tufts Library, 46 Broad St, Weymouth MA, 3 PM.  Free admission, donations accepted.

June 15, 2024. Collaborative concert with the Bristol Community Strings Project, time and place TBA.

Summer 2023

In preparation for our upcoming 2023-24 season, we hosted three summer reading sessions trying out new works.  The first was held on Saturday, June 24, at which we read through three works: Siegfried Behrend’s Altitalienische Hofmusik (Old Italian Court Music), which the PMO last played almost forty years ago; Eva Kendrick’s Country Fields, which was written for us in 2006 and which we have not performed in many years; and Herbert Baumann’s mandola concerto, Fiamme (with PMO member Robert Margo playing the solo part).   We also reviewed the third movement of Fran Trester’s, Three Movements for Mandolin Orchestra.  

Our second summer reading session was planned for July 16, but bad weather postponed it until July 22.   We worked on Hankus Netsky’s wonderful mandolin concerto (adapted for mandolin orchestra by the composer), Chagall’s Mandolins, which we had last played almost twenty years ago.  The tentative plan is to perform this in early 2024, with Jacob Reuven as the soloist; on this occasion, Mark Davis played the solo part.  We were joined by Joe Papandrea, a mandolin enthusiast from Worcester (a former member of the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra) who also is a superb accordionist — Joe brought his accordion and played the accordion part in the concerto (which none of us have ever heard).   We also read through Kurt Schwaen’s gorgeous four-movement Abendmusik, another piece that the PMO had not played for many years.  Lastly, we reviewed Altitalienische Hofmusik and Country Fields.  We were hosted by PMO member Cedwyn Morgan and his wife Martha at their lovely home in Ashby, MA. 

Our final reading session was held at Mark and Beverly Davis’s home, North Meadow Farm, in Hampton CT.  We read through the first movement of Michelle Nelson’s great concerto for mandola, Eclipse, with PMO member Robert Margo as the soloist.   We also continued working on Abendmusik, Altitalienische Hofmusik, and Chagall’s Mandolins.

2022-2023 Season

Our new season commenced with a summer reading session at North Meadow Farm in Hampton CT on Sunday, August 21, 2022.  We resumed our regular weekly rehearsals on Tuesday evenings, 7:30-9:30 PM, on August 30, at the Studio One RI Dance Complex, 85 Industrial Circle, Lincoln RI.   Our first task was to prepare for our concert in early October at the Tufts Library in Weymouth MA.  Originally the program included two recorder concertos (Gunsenheimer and Wölki) with Michael J. Raymond, Jr as soloist but, alas, Michael came down with Covid (his second bout) a few days before the concert.   The Hampton Trio substituted for Michael on (very) short notice with pieces by Raffaele Calace, Ricardo Sandoval, and Stephen Lalor, and the PMO continued with the remainder of its program (Manente, Randy Newman, the first two movements of Fran Trester’s Three Movements, and James Kellaris).  Despite the last minute program changes, the concert was a big success — a full house, and a standing ovation!

Following the concert we began working in earnest on a terrific new piece written for us by the eminent classical guitarist Ronald Pearl, Open the Door to the North Wind.  Ron recently moved to the Providence area after retiring from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.  We were fortunate to have Ron work with us on the piece as a guest conductor at two rehearsals.    Rehearsals on the Trester continue with the aim of performing the full suite at an upcoming concert.  We also began working on one of Raffaele Calace’s late compositions for mandolin orchestra, his very beautiful Intermezzo, op. 146, and we returned to a piece we rehearsed last season (but have not yet performed), the “Moderato” movement from Laurindo Almeida’s first guitar concerto, in PMO member Mark Armstrong’s innovative arrangement (and with Mark as the soloist).

Our April 3 concert at the East Providence Library was a big success — a full house and a standing ovation.  We premiered Ron Pearl’s new piece and Mark Armstrong’s arrangement, both to acclaim, and we also played the Calace Intermezzo, Trester, and Kellaris.   See our “Recent Performances” page for the program. 

We gave our the last concert of this season on Tuesday, May 30, 7:30 PM at our rehearsal space, the Studio One Rhode Island Dance Complex to a small studio audience.   The concert was livestreamed to a worldwide internet audience of about 180.   Program notes can be found on our Recent Performances page.   

The PMO is always on the lookout for new members — if you play mandolin, mandola (either CGDA or octave), mandocello, double bass, or classical guitar; read standard notation; are interested in our music, get in touch, we would love to hear from you (use the contact form on the home page)! We also have a new category of members for people who do not live in the Providence area but who are able to attend on ZOOM (contact us for further information). Or come sit in on one of our rehearsals (let us know you are coming, so we can share the music in advance) — or just come listen.   

Concerts, 2022-23 Season:

October 1, 2022.  Tufts Library, 46 Broad St, Weymouth MA, 3 PM.  Free admission, donations accepted.

April 3, 2023.  East Providence Library, 41 Grove Ave, East Providence, RI, 6:30 PM.  Free admission.

May 30, 2023. Studio One Rhode Island Dance Complex, 85 Industrial Circle, Lincoln RI.  Tickets, $10 at the door.

Please contact us for further information.

2021-2022 Season

Our 2021-2022 season began with an open air benefit concert at North Meadow Farm in late August that was a huge success! The weather was perfect, and we had an enthusiastic (and generous) audience of around 40, who gathered on the front lawn at the Farm to hear our performance of works from the different periods of PMO history. 

We gave a very successful short recital at the University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival in Kingston RI, on Sunday, October 17, at 3 PM, as part of an ensembles concert.  We performed Konrad Wölki’s Tafelmusik, with Michael J. Raymond, Jr. as recorder soloist; Guiseppe Manente’s Rêverie de Poete; and Astor Piazzolla’s Verano Porteño (arr. R. Margo).  A video of the full concert can be found here, with our segment starting around 1:19 (we are the final group performing).

We made two performance videos for the virtual Open Mic concert at the Classical Mandolin Society of America’s “Convention in the Clouds, V. 2.0” (November 12-14, 2021).  One was a video of Tafelmusik which was shown during the regular open mic concert on Saturday, November 13 (6:45-8:45 EST). The second was a video of Rêverie de Poete which was available for viewing from the OnDemand page of the convention website.  Both videos are now available to the public on YouTube (click on “PMO on YouTube”).  We made the videos at Studio One where we rehearse — it was great fun and very instructive, and we intend to make more videos for posting  on YouTube.

Our performance at the Bread Box Theatre in Willimantic on February 27th, 2022 was a big success — around 80 in attendance (a full house, given COVID restrictions), a standing ovation, and lots of positive comments from the audience.  We always enjoy playing at the Bread Box — fantastic sound, and a great audience. The concert featured the world premiere of a great new piece by James Kellaris, Au Cafe Cárdamome. Also included on the program were the wonderful Concertino No. 1 for recorder and mandolin orchestra by Gustav Gunsenheimer, featuring Michael J. Raymond, Jr as soloist; the first movement of a beautiful work by Francine Trester, Three Movements for Mandolin Orchestra, which was commissioned for us in 2006; and Robert Margo’s arrangements of Three Songs by Randy Newman which we performed several years ago at Goff Hall.  A link to the complete program notes can be found on our “Recent Performances” page.

Our final concert of the season was on Sunday, June 26, 7 PM in the Ballroom at the Studio One RI Dance Complex. We had a large, enthusiastic audience and we were very happy with our performance, which included the world premiere of Jamie Allen’s wonderful new piece, Providence Raptors, for recorder (solo) and mandolin orchestra, written for the PMO. A link to the full program, which included a reprise of Gustav Gunsenheimer Concertino No. 1 (with Michael J. Raymond, Jr as recorder soloist),  Robert Margo’s Randy Newman arrangements, Au Cafe Cárdamome by James Kellaris (which we premiered in February), and works by Giuseppe Manente, Olof Näslund (performed by the Hampton Trio) and two movements of Fran Trester’s Three Movements, can be found on our “Recent Performances” webpage. Several videos from the performance, including the Jamie Allen premiere (with Allen as soloist), can be found here.