10A= THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
MONDAY,APRIL8,2002
Festival attracts crowd to celebrate the mandolin
By Mandalee Meisner Special to the Kansan
The mandolin is a small, almond-shaped instrument. It's held in the lap and plucked like a guitar, but it's tuned like a violin. Musical notes ring delicately from four pair of steel strings stretched along its fret board.
To many, the mandolin is relatively unknown, and a festival devoted entirely to its appreciation might seem outlandish.
But to the organizers and musicians involved with Lawrence's annual mandolin festival, Mandofest 2002, the crowd of 500 gathered for the festival proved the sustained appreciation for this diminutive instrument. The turnout for Saturday's festival in Liberty Hall was the largest in Mandofest's 11-year history.
CONTRIBUTED ART
Jeff Dearinger, who conducted the event's orchestra with a frenzy of fist-shakes and animated jumping-jacks, combined styles of music ranging from Franz Lehars classical compositions to Django Reinhardt's more casual arrangements.
This year the orchestra was comprised of 24 mandolins, 6 mandolas and 3 mandocellos, larger relatives of the mandolin. Extra accompaniment was provided by guitar, bass and percussion.
Dearinger reflected the informal yet dignified nature of the program, sporting a black conductor's blazer over jeans and hiking boots. At one point, a 30-pack of Busch Light beer was brought out for Dearinger as a sign of appreciation for his 5 years of impassioned conducting.
Before the last song was performed, Dearinger addressed the audience;
"During this upcoming piece, the orchestra will stop playing for some time. But if you clap, you'll be embarrassed, because it's not over yet!"
It worked; not a single sound was heard during the prolonged silence.
Scott Tichenor, co-organizer of Mandofest with Dearinger, said this year's event benefited from an influx of participants and attendees from outside the region.
One such participant was the Don Stiernberg Trio, a well-known mandolin group from Chicago. The trio headlined the event and entertained the audience with Robin Leach and Harry Carray impressions in between Steinernberg's smooth jazz numbers.
Tichenor said the motivation behind the festival stemmed from both the plethora of local acoustic talent and from the mandolin's strong local history.
"The thing that really started this orchestra was a period of time through the 1890s up until the 1920s
Mandolin clubs, such as KU's own, pictured here, were common in the early 1900s. After ragtime was popularized in the 1920s, most mandolin clubs and orchestras faded away.
when mandolin orchestras were the big thing." Tichenor said.
After Italian immigrants brought the mandolin and mandola to American shores in the late 1800s, a veritable mandolin craze swept the country.
People were delighted with its novel size and shape, as well as the light sound it emanated. Mandolin orchestras sprung up all over the country. Lawrence alone had two.
The University of Kansas even had its own mandolin club in the early 1900s.
Mandolin orchestras played at sorority and fraternity dances. People even complained to the newspaper that especially loud mandolin players kept them up at night.
During the 1920s, the banjo replaced the mandolin as the instrument of choice. Mandolin orchestras are now mostly gone in America.
Radim Zenkl, a Czech mandolinist who has played mandolin for audiences throughout the world, said the orchestras were still prevalent in Germany, Italy and Japan.
"People have figured out that it's great for kids to learn," Zenkl said. "There are hundreds of children's orchestras in Germany."
Amber Kjeishue, Gardner junior, attended a workshop held by Zenkel at Mass Street Music last Thursday. Although she watched from the sidelines Saturday, she said she hoped to somehow become involved with Mandofest next year.
"Maybe I'll be in the orchestra," she said.
Contact Meisner at meisner@kansan.com. This story was edited by Jenna Goepfert.
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