Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra

Minneapolis, MN

CMSA Convention Hosts in 1999

Founded in 1991, the 13-member Minnesota Mandolin Orchestra performs classical music, big-band jazz, pop arrangements, ethnic and folk music, ragtime pieces, dance tunes and early 20th-century popular music. Its members, who play the full range of mandolin-family instruments (mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass) as well as guitar, come from diverse backgrounds in bluegrass, folk and classical music.

The Orchestra carries on a long tradition of mandolin activity in Minnesota. At least four other large mandolin ensembles thrived in the region in the past, including the Twin City Mandolin Club, founded in the 1890s by ragtime composer Frederick Swanson; the Columbine Mandolin Orchestra, a St. Paul youth group; the University of Minnesota Mandolin Club, which toured the state early in the century; and the Bellson Mandolin Orchestra, led by Albert Bellson, a prominent mandolinist who performed and taught in the area for nearly 50 years.

The Orchestra frequently performs on radio and in live concerts. It has played before audiences at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Minnesota Governor's Residence, the winter music festival of the Minnesota Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association, the Minnesota Guitar Society's Classical Guitarathon, and in several summer parks concert series. In 1994 and 1996 the Orchestra was honored to sponsor concerts given by the Gertrud Troster and Michael Troster, members of the distinguished German mandolin-guitar ensemble "Duo Capriccioso."

Lon Hendricks, music director