Shevchenko Mandolin Orchestra

Toronto, ON (CANADA)

CMSA Convention Hosts in 2002

Toronto Mandolin Orchestra of the Shevchenko Musical Ensemble

Hosts of the 16th Annual Convention of the Classical Mandolin Society of America (2002).

The Toronto Mandolin Orchestra, an integral part of the Shevchenko Musical Ensemble, is a proud continuation of the grand tradition of mandolin orchestral music in Canada.

The very first mandolin orchestra in the Ukrainian community was established more than 75 years ago and over the years violins and other stringed instruments were added. But in 1956 the Shevchenko Orchestra, then under the direction of the late Eugene Dolny, revived the exclusive use of the mandolin family of instruments.

The orchestra currently numbers some 40 musicians: - mandolins, mandolas, tenors (octave mandolins), mando-cellos and mando-bass. The strings are augmented with accordion, flute, oboe, clarinet and percussion. In addition to accompanying the choir (with over 400 selections in its repertoire), and soloists and dancers of the Shevchenko Musical Ensemble, the orchestra has its own repertoire of l85 selections, ranging from Ukrainian compositions on a folk idiom, to baroque, contemporary and classical selections. Members of the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra represent a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Ukrainian, Russian, Jewish, Macedonian, Serbian, Italian, Hungarian, English and more) and its repertoire is as diverse as its members.

As well as performing as part of the Ensemble, the orchestra presents its own concerts. The most memorable of these were concerts held in the prestigious Glenn Gould Studio of the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto featuring domra virtuoso Tamara Volskaya. Two wonderful CDs were produced as a result of those concerts.

Because of the unique make-up of the orchestra, every composition must be orchestrated for the unusual combination of instruments. This is done with great expertise by Artistic Director and conductor of the Ensemble, Alexander Veprinsky, who is a young and very talented musician. Alexander graduated in symphonic conducting from the Lviv Conservatory in Western Ukraine, and has been with the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra since 1995.

A very competent and prolific orchestral arranger, Alexander has arranged for the orchestra the Bizet-Shchedrin Carmen Suite, Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, the dance suite Thumbelina with music by Ukrainian composer Zhanna Kolodub, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for solo domra and orchestra (performed by Tamara Volskaya), and a number of classical overtures and arias, folk songs, dances and other selections.

Last season, in two different theatres, the orchestra presented a program of light, popular classical music with outstanding vocal soloists from the Shevchenko Choir. Among the selections orchestrated by Veprinsky for the mandolin orchestra were Ave Maria (Bach-Gonoud), La Calunnia from The Barber of Seville, The Vikings Song from Sadko, Duet of Hanna and Danilo from The Merry Widow, Adele's Laughing Song from Die Fledermaus, the traditional gypsy song Dark Eyes and many more.

The orchestra's most recent tour de force was a concert on February 3, 2002 featuring highly accomplished instrumental soloists - themselves members of the orchestra - playing both folk and classical music on a variety of instruments.

Soloists were Iraida Erokhina, a master of the 3-string domra and former soloist with the Osipov Folk Orchestra in Moscow; Senya Trubashnik, former principal oboist with the Moscow Philharmonic and later of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Brussels, Belgium; flutist Kate Anderson who studied at York University in Toronto and is a founding member of the Onyx Wind Quintet; Eric Stein, a multi-instrumental musician on mandolin, mando-bass and cimbalom who is a specialist in klezmer music and founder and leader of the innovative klezmer ensemble Beyond the Pale; and Kevin Budd, a graduate in music from York University who later studied the pan flute in Romania and who now builds them and plays them professionally.

To better demonstrate the breadth of the repertoire of the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra, we print the program of that concert.

PROGRAMME of the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra
OVERTURE to The Barber of Seville by Rossini
WINTER from Four Seasons by Vivaldi (arranged for Solo Domra & Orchestra)
CONCERTO FOR OBOE by Marcello
WALTZ from Pushkin's story
The Blizzard by G. Sviridov
CARMEN FANTASY by Francois Borne (for Flute & Orchestra)
KLEZMER SUITE by Joseph Moscovitz (for Cimbalom & Orchestra)
KOLOMIYKA by A. Kos-Anatolsky (based on a Ukrainian folk theme)
Intermission
OVERTURE by M. Theodorakis (from the operetta Angels' Quarter)
ROMANIAN FANTASY (traditional folk for Pan Flute & Orchestra)
VARIATIONS by N. Rimsky-Korsakov (for Oboe & Orchestra, 9 Based on Ukrainian folk themes)
SCHERZO by Canadian composer Ben McPeek (from Five Pictorial Sketches for Orchestra)
DOBRI DEN Traditional Jewish (for Cimbalom & Orchestra)
LA PALOMA Cuban Folk Song (for Domra & Orchestra)
UKRAINIAN FANTASY by E. Trostyanetsky (based on Ukrainian folk themes)

Because of its diversity in repertoire and genres, the orchestra is looking forward to presenting more such concerts featuring either folk or classical genres.

We would also like to inform readers that we have the following CDs for sale:

Tamara Volskaya In a Live Concert with the National Shevchenko Orchestra (now known as Toronto Mandolin Orchestra) DOREMI label 1997 This is a compilation of selections from two concerts of the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra with Tamara Volskaya in 1992 and 1996.

Tamara Volskaya at Glenn Gould Studio with Anatoly Trofimov, bayan, and the Shevchenko Mandolin Orchestra (now the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra) SME Productions label 1999

Shevchenko Male Chorus: Celebrating 50 years A set of 2 discs, a total of 30 songs from the 50-years repertoire of the Male Chorus accompanied by the Toronto Mandolin Orchestra, including the dramatic oratorio A Feast of Thunder - depicting the cycle of life - by Canadian composer Morris Surdin and lyricist George Ryga. SME Productions label 2001

For more information and prices contact the Shevchenko Musical Ensemble.