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Upcoming Concerts

Upcoming concerts are listed in this space.   Previous performances (with programs, when available) for the current and past ten seasons are listed here.  Earlier performances, including those by antecedents of the present day ensemble, are listed here.

May 31, 2025. Music Mansion, 88 Meeting St, Providence RI.

April 13, 2025. Parish Center for the Arts, 10 Lincoln St, Westford, MA.

April 5, 2025. Tufts Library, 46 Broad St, Weymouth MA, 3 PM.  Free admission, donations accepted.

Please contact us for further information about any upcoming performances.

Fall 2024

Our Goff Hall (“Arts in the Village”) concert on October 6 was a big success — full house, and another standing O at the end! Hankus Netzky, the composer of “Chagall’s Mandolins” was in atttendance (with his wife) and was thrilled with the performance of his piece.   Also in attendance were three PMO emeriti — Dan Moore, Owen Hartford, and Jacky Russom.   We took a group photo with the three emeriti — just posted to the “Historic Photos” page (look for it!).  This was our ninth (!) performance in the “Arts in the Village” series (the first was in 2006).

The Mendon concert was held at the Unitarian and Universalist Church, a beatiful, old church (ca. 1820) with wonderful acoustics.  The concert went well — we had a small, but highly appreciative audience, and received a standing ovation at the end.  A great warmup for Goff Hall, always a highlight of a PMO season.

We began rehearsals for our 2024-25 season on Tuesday September 3.  Our initial goal was to prepare for our two upcoming concerts in Mendon, MA and Goff Hall.  The program for these concerts includes three movements from Kurt Schwaen’s Abendmusik, Three Movements for Mandolin Orchestra by Francine Trester, Au Cafe Cardamome by James Kellaris, Joe Papandrea’s arrangement of Libertango, and Chagall’s Mandolins. 

Summer 2024

Our first summer session on June 29, 2024, at PMO member Chris Chito’s home in RI was a big success.   We worked on the Eclipse mandola concerto by Michelle Nelson and read through a new (to us) piece, Pursuit, by Philadelphia-area composer Thomas Smith, and the first movement of the the Carl Stamitz Orchesterquartett-C Dur (arr. M. Wilden-Huesgen).  We expect to give the US premiere of Eclipse sometime during our upcoming season (with PMO member Robert Margo as the soloist on mandola in G, a.k.a. octave mandolin); the other two works are excellent new additions to the PMO repertoire.  Our next summer session will be on July 21 at PMO member Cedwyn Morgan’s home, and then in late August at Mark and Beverly’s Davis’ North Meadow Farm.  

Spring 2024

Our concerts at the Breadbox on May 5 and the following weekend at the Tufts Library in Weymouth were big successes — capacity audiences and standing ovations!  At the Breadbox, the concert opened with a short set by the Hampton Trio (Mark Davis, mandolin; Robert Margo, mandola in G; Beverly Davis, classical guitar) featuring works by Barrios, Vivaldi, Sandoval, and Kuwahara.  The PMO set followed, opening with the first movement of Abendmusik; followed by the Bach/Piazzolla arrangement of Libertango with Joe Papandrea on the bandoneon; the “Moderato” movement from the Almedia guitar concerto, with Mark Armstrong as the soloist; Trester; and closing with Chagall’s Mandolins, with Mark Davis as soloist.  The May 11 concert was all-PMO, with the same program plus the fourth movement of Abendmusik to close.  The encore both times was an early twentieth century classic from the Golden Age of the American mandolin, The Flying Wedge, by Kate Dolby.

Ditto, our June 8 collababorative concert with the Community Strings Project (CSP) of Providence, RI, entitled “Pick Meets Bow” — a big success, large audience, and a standing-O at the end! For our portion of the concert, the PMO played a short set consisting of the Trester and three movements of Abendmusik (#1, #2, and 4).  For the finale, we combined forces with the CSP string orchestra and the CSP guitar ensemble for a rousing performance of Chagall’s Mandolins, with Mark Davis as soloist and PMO  member, Michael J. Raymond, Jr, conducting.  Earlier the same day, several members of the PMO participated in a free workshop at the Bristol (RI) State House Foundation called “Meet the Mandolin” under the direction of Mark Davis that was well-attended.  We look forward to more collaborations with the CSP in the future.

Winter 2024

We resumed rehearsals after a holiday break.  In addition to our upcoming concert on May 11 in Weymouth at the Tufts Library,  we have a second concert confirmed the prior weekend, on May 5, at the Bread Box Theatre in Willimantic, CT; and a third on June 8, in collaboration with the Bristol (RI) Community Strings project.  Our program for the May 5 and May 11 concerts will be consist of five works — a mashup of a Bach prelude with Piazzolla’s famous Libertango, newly arranged by PMO member Joseph Papandrea, and with Joe on the bandoneon; Mark Armstrong’s Almeida arrangement; Mark Davis as mandolin soloist in New England Conservatory faculty member Hankus Netzky’s fabulous concerto, Chagall’s Mandolins; Trester, Three Movements; and Schwaen, Abendmusik.   At the June 8 concert, the PMO will perform a short set consisting of Trester and Schwaen, following by a collaborative performance of Chagall’s Mandolins with the Bristol Community Strings, with Mark Davis again as the soloist.

Fall 2023

We have begun weekly rehearsals for our new season.   So far, we have one confirmed concert, in late spring 2024, but we expect to add additional concerts soon.  We rehearse on Tuesday evenings, 7:30-9:30 PM, at the Studio One RI Dance Complex, 85 Industrial Circle, Lincoln RI. 

This fall we worked extensively on Chagall’s Mandolins, Abendmusik, and Eclipse, a beatufiul concerto for mandola (in G, a.k.a. octave mandolin) and mandolin orchestra by the Austrailian composer Michelle Nelson.   We continued to refine our performance of Fran Trester’s Three Movements, with the aim of playing the entire suite soon in concert; and we reviewed Mark Armstrong’s arrangement of the first movement of Laurindo Almeida’s first guitar concerto.

Summer 2023

In preparation for our upcoming 2023-24 season, we hosted three summer reading sessions trying out new works.  The first was held on Saturday, June 24, at which we read through three works: Siegfried Behrend’s Altitalienische Hofmusik (Old Italian Court Music), which the PMO last played almost forty years ago; Eva Kendrick’s Country Fields, which was written for us in 2006 and which we have not performed in many years; and Herbert Baumann’s mandola concerto, Fiamme (with PMO member Robert Margo playing the solo part).   We also reviewed the third movement of Fran Trester’s, Three Movements for Mandolin Orchestra.  

Our second summer reading session was planned for July 16, but bad weather postponed it until July 22.   We worked on Hankus Netsky’s wonderful mandolin concerto (adapted for mandolin orchestra by the composer), Chagall’s Mandolins, which we had last played almost twenty years ago.  The tentative plan is to perform this in early 2024, with Jacob Reuven as the soloist; on this occasion, Mark Davis played the solo part.  We were joined by Joe Papandrea, a mandolin enthusiast from Worcester (a former member of the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra) who also is a superb accordionist — Joe brought his accordion and played the accordion part in the concerto (which none of us have ever heard).   We also read through Kurt Schwaen’s gorgeous four-movement Abendmusik, another piece that the PMO had not played for many years.  Lastly, we reviewed Altitalienische Hofmusik and Country Fields.  We were hosted by PMO member Cedwyn Morgan and his wife Martha at their lovely home in Ashby, MA. 

Our final reading session was held at Mark and Beverly Davis’s home, North Meadow Farm, in Hampton CT.  We read through the first movement of Michelle Nelson’s great concerto for mandola, Eclipse, with PMO member Robert Margo as the soloist.   We also continued working on Abendmusik, Altitalienische Hofmusik, and Chagall’s Mandolins.

2022-2023 Season

Our new season commenced with a summer reading session at North Meadow Farm in Hampton CT on Sunday, August 21, 2022.  We resumed our regular weekly rehearsals on Tuesday evenings, 7:30-9:30 PM, on August 30, at the Studio One RI Dance Complex, 85 Industrial Circle, Lincoln RI.   Our first task was to prepare for our concert in early October at the Tufts Library in Weymouth MA.  Originally the program included two recorder concertos (Gunsenheimer and Wölki) with Michael J. Raymond, Jr as soloist but, alas, Michael came down with Covid (his second bout) a few days before the concert.   The Hampton Trio substituted for Michael on (very) short notice with pieces by Raffaele Calace, Ricardo Sandoval, and Stephen Lalor, and the PMO continued with the remainder of its program (Manente, Randy Newman, the first two movements of Fran Trester’s Three Movements, and James Kellaris).  Despite the last minute program changes, the concert was a big success — a full house, and a standing ovation!

Following the concert we began working in earnest on a terrific new piece written for us by the eminent classical guitarist Ronald Pearl, Open the Door to the North Wind.  Ron recently moved to the Providence area after retiring from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.  We were fortunate to have Ron work with us on the piece as a guest conductor at two rehearsals.    Rehearsals on the Trester continue with the aim of performing the full suite at an upcoming concert.  We also began working on one of Raffaele Calace’s late compositions for mandolin orchestra, his very beautiful Intermezzo, op. 146, and we returned to a piece we rehearsed last season (but have not yet performed), the “Moderato” movement from Laurindo Almeida’s first guitar concerto, in PMO member Mark Armstrong’s innovative arrangement (and with Mark as the soloist).

Our April 3 concert at the East Providence Library was a big success — a full house and a standing ovation.  We premiered Ron Pearl’s new piece and Mark Armstrong’s arrangement, both to acclaim, and we also played the Calace Intermezzo, Trester, and Kellaris.   See our “Recent Performances” page for the program. 

We gave our the last concert of this season on Tuesday, May 30, 7:30 PM at our rehearsal space, the Studio One Rhode Island Dance Complex to a small studio audience.   The concert was livestreamed to a worldwide internet audience of about 180.   Program notes can be found on our Recent Performances page.   

The PMO is always on the lookout for new members — if you play mandolin, mandola (either CGDA or octave), mandocello, double bass, or classical guitar; read standard notation; are interested in our music, get in touch, we would love to hear from you (use the contact form on the home page)! We also have a new category of members for people who do not live in the Providence area but who are able to attend on ZOOM (contact us for further information). Or come sit in on one of our rehearsals (let us know you are coming, so we can share the music in advance) — or just come listen.   

2021-2022 Season

Our 2021-2022 season began with an open air benefit concert at North Meadow Farm in late August that was a huge success! The weather was perfect, and we had an enthusiastic (and generous) audience of around 40, who gathered on the front lawn at the Farm to hear our performance of works from the different periods of PMO history. 

We gave a very successful short recital at the University of Rhode Island Guitar Festival in Kingston RI, on Sunday, October 17, at 3 PM, as part of an ensembles concert.  We performed Konrad Wölki’s Tafelmusik, with Michael J. Raymond, Jr. as recorder soloist; Guiseppe Manente’s Rêverie de Poete; and Astor Piazzolla’s Verano Porteño (arr. R. Margo).  A video of the full concert can be found here, with our segment starting around 1:19 (we are the final group performing).

We made two performance videos for the virtual Open Mic concert at the Classical Mandolin Society of America’s “Convention in the Clouds, V. 2.0” (November 12-14, 2021).  One was a video of Tafelmusik which was shown during the regular open mic concert on Saturday, November 13 (6:45-8:45 EST). The second was a video of Rêverie de Poete which was available for viewing from the OnDemand page of the convention website.  Both videos are now available to the public on YouTube (click on “PMO on YouTube”).  We made the videos at Studio One where we rehearse — it was great fun and very instructive, and we intend to make more videos for posting  on YouTube.

Our performance at the Bread Box Theatre in Willimantic on February 27th, 2022 was a big success — around 80 in attendance (a full house, given COVID restrictions), a standing ovation, and lots of positive comments from the audience.  We always enjoy playing at the Bread Box — fantastic sound, and a great audience. The concert featured the world premiere of a great new piece by James Kellaris, Au Cafe Cárdamome. Also included on the program were the wonderful Concertino No. 1 for recorder and mandolin orchestra by Gustav Gunsenheimer, featuring Michael J. Raymond, Jr as soloist; the first movement of a beautiful work by Francine Trester, Three Movements for Mandolin Orchestra, which was commissioned for us in 2006; and Robert Margo’s arrangements of Three Songs by Randy Newman which we performed several years ago at Goff Hall.  A link to the complete program notes can be found on our “Recent Performances” page.

Our final concert of the season was on Sunday, June 26, 7 PM in the Ballroom at the Studio One RI Dance Complex. We had a large, enthusiastic audience and we were very happy with our performance, which included the world premiere of Jamie Allen’s wonderful new piece, Providence Raptors, for recorder (solo) and mandolin orchestra, written for the PMO. A link to the full program, which included a reprise of Gustav Gunsenheimer Concertino No. 1 (with Michael J. Raymond, Jr as recorder soloist),  Robert Margo’s Randy Newman arrangements, Au Cafe Cárdamome by James Kellaris (which we premiered in February), and works by Giuseppe Manente, Olof Näslund (performed by the Hampton Trio) and two movements of Fran Trester’s Three Movements, can be found on our “Recent Performances” webpage. Several videos from the performance, including the Jamie Allen premiere (with Allen as soloist), can be found here.