The Mandolin Orchestra of South Hadley is the first of its kind in Massachusetts since the 1800s. We are an ensemble consisting of 5-25 classically-trained musicians, many of us are students, studying the music of 15th - 19th Century Europe. Familiar composers include Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Byrd, Telemann, Haydn and Pachelbel. Performances also include works by Modern Massachusetts composers and may include members of Mandolin New England. Concerts are generally free, however we do ask for a donation to support our Scholarship programs. Master classes by composers and visiting artists are $25 per person. NEWS AND UPDATES 2015 The Mandolin Orchestra had a very nice concert at the Town Hall on Saturday the 17th of January that was covered by the Valley Press . With over 250 in attendance, it was standing room only towards the back of the hall! It's been about 130 years since there was a real mandolin orchestra in South Hadley, maybe even more. There was a Mandolin Club at Mount Holyoke in 1905, that performed often with the Glee Club, but it was made up of mandolins and guitars and had no mandolas, mandocellos or mandobasses! Giuseppe Pettine was a mandolin teacher from Holyoke that did a lot of early work with mandolins in our area in the late 1800s. We perform a mixture of locally composed works by Michael Nix and others, traditional Classical pieces by Bach, Mozart and Vivaldi, and other chamber works by various contemporary composers, something for everyone! One of the primary goals of the Mandolin Orchestra is to provide unique educational opportunities for mandolin enthusiasts of all ages and levels of expertise. We have other aspirations:
- Our South Hadley base makes us eager to play a role in the “Rise of the Falls” that has been inspired by the opening in the village of South Hadley Falls of a new public library with a dramatic overlook of the dam and its spillway.
- Our musical connections throughout the region have led to a vision of a larger “Mandolin New England” venture that links our orchestra with other mandolin ensembles. The January 17 concert will include players from Rhode Island’s L’Esperance Mandolin Ensemble and Mando Paradiso, a Northampton-based group.
- At the macro level, we are looking to inspire a revival of participatory music here in the Valley, and the mandolin is the perfect vehicle. One hundred years ago when the Gibson mandolin was almost as popular as the Fender guitar is today, there were mandolin ensembles at Amherst and Smith colleges, and vibrant mandolin groups in Holyoke and Springfield and all over the country. In the years since, our over-reliance on radio and iTunes to meet our musical needs has left us spectators rather than actors in our musical lives, and that does not have to be. People of the rising Millennial Generation are active and daring, whether it be rock-climbing, skate boarding, or riding a zip-line in Costa Rica. There’s nothing more daring than playing a mandolin solo in concert. And we want to make that simple and accessible, because it’s great fun, too.
- A key strategy for us is what we call Play to Own. A new player can play in orchestra rehearsals free, and we’ll even loan them a mandolin to take home to practice. Then, if they are smitten by the experience, they can become a student member, demonstrate a real commitment through active study of the instrument, and become the owner of the instrument over time.
