‘Once in a lifetime opportunity’: Over 100 mandolin players to perform in Kansas City

It’s hard to imagine, but there was a time when every city in America had at least one and usually several mandolin orchestras. These large ensembles died out after the 1920s, but in recent years they’ve experienced a renaissance, including here in Kansas City.

The Mandolin Orchestra of Kansas City is hosting the Classical Mandolin Society of America’s convention Nov. 8 to 12 at the Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza. The public is invited to free concerts Nov. 9, 10 and 11.

Mandolin orchestras were incredibly popular in the United States from the late 1800s to 1925, said Phil Vinyard, who, with Laura Gray, is a member of the local orchestra and co-chairs the convention’s host committee.

“Every city had multiple mandolin orchestras,” Vinyard said. “Even Kansas City did. I did some research at the Kansas City Public Library downtown, and they had a photo of the Central High School Mandolin Orchestra. They’re all together playing in a picture from 1902. There was even a company manufacturing mandolins here in Kansas City. The old Jenkins Music had an arm that they called Harwood Brand.They were cranking out mandolins. Everybody had them.”

A mandolin orchestra is modeled on a string orchestra, with various sizes of mandolins, like the mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass. corresponding to the various string instruments of the orchestra.

Although they were all the rage, various forces soon began to conspire against mandolin orchestras.

“In the mid 1920s, the orchestras faltered,” Vinyard said. “Radio got big, and it was more fun to listen to your radio than play in a mandolin orchestra. And they started amplifying guitars, and the whole thing went down. There really weren’t any orchestras, other than a random one here or there. In the 1980s they started reconstituting.”

The Mandolin Orchestra of Kansas City was founded in 2018 and currently has 15 members. Vinyard, whose day job is associate administrator of finance for the department of pediatrics at Children’s Mercy hospital, says that the orchestra goes beyond the classical repertoire.

“We’re actually an unusual mandolin orchestra, mostly because of our conductor and music director, Phil DeWalt,” Vinyard said. “He taught in the public schools for years, then retired early and went back and got his Ph.D. in composition. We play a lot of his original pieces and arrangements for mandolin orchestra. We play some wild stuff. We’re the rebels in the CMSA.”

Gray, who oversees the wastewater team at Lamp Rynearson when she isn’t plucking her mandolin, took up the instrument during the pandemic. She says she still thoroughly enjoys it.

“It’s actually a blast,” she said. “It’s just a lot of fun. It’s a very important part of my life. I have mandolin orchestra on Tuesday and I have church orchestra at Church of the Resurrection on Wednesday. This group is great because it’s just a bunch of really neat people who love making music.”

You’ll have a chance to hear them at the Friday night concert, which will also feature two outstanding mandolinists, Masataka Hori from Japan and Kim Hye Kyung from Korea. All together, around 120 mandolinists from the United States and around the world are coming to Kansas City.

Hori will also perform Thursday night with classical guitarist Adam Levin and mandolinists Jacob Reuven and Carmen Simón who bill themselves as 16 Strings.

The convention will feature workshops and lots of intensive rehearsals for all the mandolinists as they get ready to perform at the grand finale Saturday night as the convention’s annual ad hoc ensemble, En Masse.

“En Masse has a stunner of a sound,” Vinyard said. “You’ll never see a mandolin ensemble that size anywhere. For Kansas City, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear a mandolin orchestra of this size and this quality for free. No telling when it will ever happen again.”

8 p.m. Nov. 9, 10 and 11. Marriott Country Club Plaza Hotel, 4445 Main St. Free. classicalmandolinsociety.org.

Youth Symphony of Kansas City

The Youth Symphony of Kansas City conducted by Steven Davis will have a busy Sunday on Nov. 12 at Yardley Hall at the Midwest Trust Center. At 2 p.m., their Debut and Repertory Orchestras will perform, and at 7:30 p.m. their Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras take the stage.

The Debut Orchestra, which is made up of students grades five to eight, will perform an age-appropriate but challenging program, while the Repertory Orchestra, made up of advanced students grades nine to 12, will take on Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 “Jupiter” and Rossini’s “Barber of Seville Overture.”

The evening concert will begin with the Philharmonic Orchestra, made up of students grades seven to 12, performing a lively program, which includes Brahms’ Academic Festival Overture and Schubert’s “Rosamunde” Overture. The concert will conclude with the Symphony Orchestra, the Youth Symphony’s flagship ensemble, performing Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.

Debut & Repertory Orchestras at 2 p.m. and Philharmonic & Symphony Orchestras at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12. Yardley Hall, Midwest Trust Center, Johnson County Community College, 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park. $5-$15. youthsymphonykc.org.

William Baker Festival Singers

The William Baker Festival Singers will present “Music Down in My Soul” Nov. 5 at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church. The program will feature a classic William Baker mix of works by composers like Brahms and Bruckner, as well as two Kansas City premieres, Edmund Jolliffe’s “Wessobrunn Prayer” and Zachary James Ritter’s “The Sometimes Joy of Reminiscing.”

3 p.m. Nov. 5. St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 1307 Holmes St. $5-$75. 913-488-7524 or festivalsingers.org.

Musica Vocale

Musica Vocale is starting off its 2023-2024 season by honoring composers who have important birth or death anniversaries this coming year. For example, the choir conducted by Jay Carter and Ryan Olsen will perform music by Bruckner, born in 1823, William Byrd, who died in 1623, and Puccini, who died in 1923. Several other composers will also be featured in this clever and varied program.

3 p.m. Nov. 12. Rainbow Mennonite Church, 1444 Southwest Blvd. Free. musicavocale.org

MAPAAA

The Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance always puts on high-quality and adventurous concerts, and they’re free. On Nov. 10, it will present “Romantic Greats” featuring violinists Felix Olschofka and Chia-Fei Lin, violist Boris Vayner, cellists Susie Yang and Jesse Henkensiefken and pianist Tatiana Tessman at Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church.

The composers on the program might be familiar, but the works are not the same-old, same-old. The program gives some rarely heard pieces their chance in the sun: Elgar’s Piano Quintet, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Trio No. 1 and Robert Schumann’s Märchenbilder Duo.

7 p.m. Pine Ridge Presbyterian Church, 7600 N.W. Barry Road. Free. mapaa.org

Destiny Mermagen

Violinist Destiny Mermagen’s Side by Side concerts are a delight for audiences and a memorable experience for the young musicians who get to perform alongside professionals.

The next Side by Side is Nov. 11 at Old Mission United Methodist Church. Mermagen, who bills herself as the “Classical Cowgirl,” has a real knack for finding the connections between classical and folk traditions, and the program includes some American and Irish folk music, as well as Grieg’s folk-flavored Holberg Suite.

7:30 p.m. Nov. 11. Old Mission United Methodist Church, 5519 State Park Road. Free. prairieclassical.org

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.