Though it’s associated most with rock music, the guitar can be classically studied at many music schools in the United States. The same can’t be said for the mandolin, a string instrument that’s closer to a violin in both tone and size.
Ken Luk, an instructor at the Eastman Community Music School, attributes the disparity to one simple explanation.
“In the States, mandolin is so associated with folk and bluegrass,” he said. “It’s not a classical genre. Can people even name a classical mandolin player in the 19th century who has established schools? There are (some), but it’s not as public.”
Bluegrass, especially in the Finger Lakes region, has plenty of boosters — Dirty Blanket, The Honey Smugglers and The Crooked North are just a few examples.
But non-folk mandolin playing? The Classical Mandolin Society of America aims to spread the word.
The group, which strives to “promote and nurture” classical mandolin playing, holds an annual convention to that end. This year’s will run Oct. 30 through Nov. 2 at Rochester’s Hyatt Regency hotel. The four-day event features workshops and concerts that prominently feature mandolin and instruments in the mandolin family. International performers from Germany and Italy are on the bill — Charlotte Kaiser and Carlo Aonzo, respectively — as well as Rene Izquierdo, a Cuban classical guitarist. Aonzo and Izquierdo perform as a duo.
Luk, who co-chairs the convention committee, came to mandolin after 12 years of playing violin and switching over to guitar. He realized the mandolin was a bridge connecting the two.
“It was kind of a natural development, like, ‘oh, I already know all the notes on the left hand,’” he said.
Luk witnessed a mandolin orchestra for the first time in Atlanta and eventually joined with Tom Napoli, another longtime Rochester guitarist who had recently picked mandolin back up after being given one by a cousin.
“Rather than just re-enter the pop music world, one of the conditions of receiving the instrument was to play some of the music that our family played,” Napoli said, referring to Italian songs called mazurkas.
“All of a sudden, I’ve got this new world that opens up with all this written music,” he explained. “It’s not just familiar folk tunes that we’re playing, and it’s not, ‘I just need to learn this lick so we can play this tune from the band.’ It was much more disciplined.”
The pair helped organize the Rochester Mandolin Orchestra in 2019, and the group currently has 14 performers on its roster.
Napoli, the managing director, explained that a mandolin orchestra is analogous to a bowed-string orchestra where mandolins equate to violins.
“They actually share the same tuning,” Napoli explained. “Violas share the tuning with mandola in our world, and cello with mandocello. We also share classical guitars and stand-up acoustic bass.”
Luk, the music director, is often in touch with some of the four dozen mandolin orchestras around the country and describes the small but dedicated group of players as an “extremely supportive community.”
The Classical Mandolin Society of America previously held conventions in Kalamazoo, Michigan and Kansas City, Missouri. Rochester was chosen partly because of its active mandolin orchestra and partly due to simple logistics and economics.
“They’re looking for a host orchestra in the city. They’re looking for a city that embraces a wide range of music,” Napoli said. “They’re also looking for locations that are central to a lot of the membership, and affordability is one of the factors.”
In other words, classical mandolin conventions aren’t likely to hit New York City or Boston. But that allows for plenty of exploration in smaller markets.
It also creates a place for mandolinists to perform together. Around 120 players have signed on to play in the convention’s grand finale, called the En Masse Orchestra. The group will perform two new pieces commissioned specifically for the occasion.
Guitar and violin might get all the glory. But as Napoli said, classical mandolin has a singular, transformative and somewhat mysterious power.
“That was a world that I was not familiar with (at first), but got sucked into quite deeply.”
The Classical Mandolin Society of America’s 2024 convention runs Oct. 30 – Nov. 2 at the Hyatt Regency Rochester. More information here.
Patrick Hosken is an arts writer at CITY. He can be reached at patrick@rochester-citynews.com.
This article appears in Oct 1-31, 2024.
