Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra
Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra
Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra in 2017
In Milwaukee, only one musical ensemble and performing arts group can claim a history as long as 125 years. This month, Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra continues its birthday celebration with a pair of concerts.
Orchestra member Lorna Young has been with MMO for four years. As she recalls, a former music teacher praised MMO to her during intermission at a Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concert and suggested, “You should learn how to play mandolin and join the Mandolin Orchestra.” Young had been a violinist. “I didn’t know anything about plucking but I knew how to read music,” she says. Fred Pike, a member since 2012, was a guitarist. “I didn’t think I had the chops but a friend in the Mandolin Orchestra said, ‘Just come and join,’” he recalls.
On the other hand, Lisa Lyon grew up with MMO. Her father Jake Skopir was a member for 68 years and brought his mandolin with him to the South Pacific during World War II. Her parents met because of the orchestra and her mom was its first female member. “They rehearsed in our basement every Monday night. The ceiling was paper thin,” she says, remembering the music wafting up from the cellar.
Back in Fashion
Image courtesy of the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra
Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra - 125th Anniversary Concert
In 1900 when MMO began and through the ‘40s, Milwaukee supported a dozen mandolin bands, some with more than 30 members and performing at big halls such as the Crystal Palace. However, mandolins fell from fashion in the ‘50s and Lyon remembers the MMO’s weekly basement rehearsals as social gatherings with beer and peanuts as well as music. Dwindling in numbers, they played occasional church festivals and private parties—until Paul Ruppa appeared in 1981. He was in grad school writing a thesis on mandolin orchestras and became a member, encouraging the MMO to “elevate the musicianship, to be taken seriously. He changed the way we rehearsed and where we played,” Lyon says. Among his accomplishments was getting the Orchestra a gig on “Prairie Home Companion.”
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Ruppa is now the MMO’s archivist, the keeper of a trove of mandolin-oriented music that has become a resource known nationwide. The collection includes sheet music, photographs, concert programs and memorabilia of all sorts along with more than 2,000 arrangements for mandolin ensembles. At the turn of the last century, Milwaukee was a sheet-music hub and encouraged the work of songwriters. Ruppa cites three prominent Cream City mandolin composers in the collection: Salvatore Fachutar, William C. Stahl and Howard Weeks. “I am currently working on donating the hard copy to university music schools for safe storage,” he says.
Ruppa was succeeded as music director by Linda Binder. When she left to pursue other musical ventures, Rene Izsquierdo stepped up as conductor in 2014. “My vision for the MMO has always been simple: to honor our roots while opening our doors wider,” Izsquierdo says. “We celebrate the traditions that shaped this orchestra, but we also embrace new voices, new cultures, and new repertoire that help us grow without losing who we are.
“An orchestra that has played for 125 years is not just an institution, it is a community,” he continues. “It is the story of the people who kept showing up, week after week, to make music together. I am grateful to be one small part of that lineage.”
During the past 10 years, the MMO ventured beyond Milwaukee for performances in Italy, Austria and Japan. Earlier this year, they brought in a German mandolin group for a joint concert in town.
Is a resurgence occurring of mandolin music? “Well, there’s certainly an interest,” Pike says, adding that 30-40 mandolin orchestras perform regularly in the U.S., the orchestras continue to flourish in Europe and—in the past few years—the music has found a new and avid audience in Japan.
The Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra will perform 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6 at Wauwatosa Presbyterian Church, 2366 N. 80th St.; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7 at Plymouth Church UCC, 2717 E. Hampshire St. Tickets are available in advance or at the door. For more information, visit https://www.milwaukeemandolinorchestra.org/
