# Music by Genre > Orchestral, Classical, Italian, Medieval, Renaissance >  THE PEOPLE at the Eurofestival in Bamberg

## Plamen Ivanov

I`m sure, that I`m not going to surprise anybody by saying that the mandolin community in the world might be not so big, but sure consist of very spontaneous, sincere, intelligent, friendly, (and whatever nice words come to your mind) people. I wish I could say the same also for other communities.

No doubt the most often mentioned name was Prof. Marga Wilden-Huesgen (further just Marga, because it`s too long). One could often hear things like: Marga said this, Marga said that, that`s made after Marga`s advice, these are the strings that Marga recommends, Marga told me to play it like this, where is Marga, ask Marga for this, etc. She has a great influence, not just among Germans, but among foreign mandolin players too. In Germany she is an undisputed authority, an institution, when it`s about mandolins and mandolin related stuff. We have discussed her personality here mostly in the light of the German style of playing and the produced sound. There were always pro- and anti-, and I do not want to go in details now, but there`s no doubt that she has a great merit for the development of the contemporary mandolin music (and I mean everything related  teaching great students, developing the German bowlback, picks, playing technics, etc. finding out old music for mandolin, making arrangements, collecting all kind of mandolin stuff, etc., etc.).

Someone may say that this picture is bad quality, because of the blur silhouette of Marga in the background, but I like it because it`s a kind of a metaphor. Even if she is not there, you always see her silhouette in the background of any mandolin event in Germany and outside I guess, when her students are performing.

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## Plamen Ivanov

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## Plamen Ivanov

And of course Caterina Lichtenberg Some of you know that she`s my favorite mandolin player and these who know her personally know also what a great person she is. She was delighted with a great attention from the audience, from her colleagues, from anybody. She is just great, I cannot say more. She played as a part of Quarteto Magico (comes from mandolin and guitar consort and includes Caterina Lichtenberg, Gertrud Weyhofen, Olaf van Gonnissen and Thomas Mueller-Pering) and as a member of Trio Delicado (Caterina Lichtenberg, Peter Ernst and Diego Jaskalevich) I had great expectations to Quarteto Magico and their performance came up to my expectations, but I liked Trio Delicado more. May be it was the music, may be it was the attractive playing on the charango or the atmosphere between the players and in the hall, I don`t know, but I like it more anyway.

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## Plamen Ivanov

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## Plamen Ivanov

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## Plamen Ivanov

Here is the place to mention that Gertrud Weyhofen has been present just that night for the performance of Quarteto Magico. It seems that she is very busy with her small daughter.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Trio Delicado

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## Plamen Ivanov

The next person that I`m about to mention with great respect to his age and strong mind is Takashi Ochi. He speaks German perfect and his contacts with German players go back quite a long way. He looks and behaves like an imp child. Always with smile on his face, he was joking a lot. We talked for a lot of things, even for sumo. On the next day I was testing a mandolin in the corridor, he came along and said very nice words about my playing. I don`t take myself too seriously when it`s about mandolin playing, so I was not flattered, but it`s good to hear it anyway.

The Japanese were very good represented in Bamberg. It was the second largest crowd after the Germans, of course. You know that the mandolin is very popular there. Big orchestras, very good players, one of them  Takaaki Shibata played together with the Orquesta Mandolina de Hermano at the opening concert of the festival. I was a little bit surprised but most Japanese didnt speak English very well, I should say most of them didnt speak English at all.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Back to the German camp... 
Other German highlights were Duo Ahlert-Schwab and the Duo Steffen Trekel and Michael Troester. It`s just my opinion, but I think Steffen Trekel took the place of Gertrud Weyhofen very successful (I just hope that his second name won`t change to Troester). By the way I bought a CD of Duo Armonico (Steffen Trekel and Andreas Pauly  guitar) which is very good. We haven`t mentioned Steffen Trekel too often before, but he is for sure another great German mandolin player. 
Some of you know Silke Lisko, also an excellent performer of the German camp.

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## Plamen Ivanov

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## Plamen Ivanov

Not the best picture from aesthetical point of view, but...

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## Plamen Ivanov

I want to pay special attention to the ex-UdSSR players  Ukrainians, Bellorussians, Russians. They all were very young and may be you will hear their names for the first time, but you will hear these names in the future for sure. They all were absolutely great! It`s just my opinion but they performed the most difficult pieces live at the festival and performed them excellent  very clear playing, intonation, technics, everything. Chronologically I was impressed first by trio Tonart  Natalia Korsak, Nikolai Maretzki (mandolins and domras) and Eugenii Gridyushko. Absolutely virtuoso playing! It was a rule at the festivals  no encores, but there was such an applause that they were forced to play something more and they played The flight of the bumble bee which blew up the hall.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Katia Prakopchyk is another name that you have to keep in mind. Great performance with the guitarist Jan Skryhan of Ranieri Capponi`s Sonata da Camera Nr. 8 on barock mandolin and of Kuwahara`s Eclogue for mandolin and guitar and especially Munier`s Rossiniana op. 131.

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## Plamen Ivanov

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## Plamen Ivanov

I was giving away small Bulgarian souvenirs and everybody was very happy.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Duo Opus 1 - Elena Olenchyk (mandolin) and Valerij Kisselov (liuto cantabile) performed on original Calace instruments Gran Duetto for mandolin and liuto. I didn`t expect such fine playing on the liuto cantabile.

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## Plamen Ivanov

One of the very first persons that I met at the festival was the president of the CMSA Bruce Graybill. He was hanging around the Knorr stand while I was testing the Gioiosa. He wanted to know where to look inside his Knorr mandolin, which he has bought from Butch Baldassari few years ago, in order to see the serial number. After that we had a very nice conversation. I told him my opinion about the CMSA, he told me what is he trying to do. We talked about an hour. We started with the mandolin related stuff and finished with comparison between the expropriation procedures of private plots in Bulgaria and in the United States. We laughed a lot, etc. and we attended together one of the concerts.

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## Plamen Ivanov

It was a great pleasure for me to meet another american at the festival  Don Stiernberg. He is really a great guy and great musician and his colleagues  Curt Morrison and Jim Cox too. Although the bluegrass mandolin is not very popular in Germany, their performance was accepted very well by the audience. 
The picture is not from their concert, but from the workshop "Introduction in bluess and jazz".

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## Plamen Ivanov

Some other participants:
Luxembourg mandolin quintet with Mari fe Pavon.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Shugato Bhaduri from India with his hypnotic one hour non-stop playing performance.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Trio Chamoro from Spain. Great banduria playing.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Collegium Concertante - Zither qurtet.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Marijke and Michael Wieseneker from Amsterdam at the workshop about the mandolin in the pop and rock music. I think there`s a lot that they can learn from the pop and rock section of the board and I told them this.

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## Plamen Ivanov

That`s a pic from the performance that Ian was so excited about.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Few well known persons that were present but didn`t play  Detlef Tewes who signed for me his 2006 CD with pieces by Mozart and Denise Wambsgans (on the picture).

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## Plamen Ivanov

That`s how the concert halls looked like.

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## Plamen Ivanov

The persons that I and the festival missed a lot  Carlo Aonzo, Richard Walz, Alison Stephens, Alex Timmerman, Eugene Braig, Victor Kiuolaphides, Jim Garber, Linda Binder, Michael Reichenbach, Arto Lauerma, Alexandr Knapek, Ralf Leenen, etc. I cannot write all the names, but you know what I mean.

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## Plamen Ivanov

One of the greatest facts at the festival was the presence of so many young people. I personally enjoyed the company of Gregor Schmatz - very nice young guy from Germany living in Luxembourg and his mother.

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## Plamen Ivanov

Most of you know this picture, but a lot of people in Bamberg saw it for the first time on my T-Shirt and like it a lot.

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## Plamen Ivanov

I know I missed a lot of things to mention. I`ll add everything that comes (probably) to my mind later.

Hu, I`m going to bed now. 

Best,
Plamen

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## Alex Timmerman

Hello Plami,

Thank you for this great report. It gives a very good idea of what was going on. And very nice to see so many photos of it. You are - as Eugene already mentioned - a true ambassador of our instrument.


Warm regards and thanks for the postcard!  

Alex

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## Fliss

Plami, many thanks for your wonderful reporting and photos, I'm really enjoying seeing them.

Fliss

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## Embergher

Thanks Plamen, for all the information and pictures.
Interesting to see Steffen Trekel with his Embergher (btw, for as far as I can see on this picture it looks like a very nice pre-1910 N°5 concert Embergher), but also next to him on the floor: his German (Seiffert, Knorr, ...?) mandolin.
Did he change mandolins according to which style of music he had to play, and if so, did it also sound different? (I mean did he play the Embergher with traditional strings and plectrum - or at least: did it sound like an Embergher mandolin?).

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## Plamen Ivanov

Hello Ralf,

I cannot define the type of Steffen Trekel`s Embergher, I`m not as good as you and Alex are in this matter, but it sure sounded different from his German "Seiffert" bowlback. I think Steffen Trekel didn`t use a Ranieri plectrum, otherwise I should noticed this. Probably it was a tortoise shell plectrum. But that`s all that I can say. On the Embergher he played Calace`s Polonaise Op. 36 and on the Seiffert Keigo Fujii`s Sonata for mandolin and guitar.

Good luck!
Plamen

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## Embergher

> Hello Ralf,
> 
> I cannot define the type of Steffen Trekel`s Embergher, I`m not as good as you and Alex are in this matter, but it sure sounded different from his German "Seiffert" bowlback. I think Steffen Trekel didn`t use a Ranieri plectrum, otherwise I should noticed this. Probably it was a tortoise shell plectrum. But that`s all that I can say. On the Embergher he played Calace`s Polonaise Op. 36 and on the Seiffert Keigo Fujii`s Sonata for mandolin and guitar.
> 
> Good luck!
> Plamen


Thanks Plamen, #that's useful to know. 
(Don't worry about the model of Embergher ... When I read again what I wrote above, I realise that I wasn't very clear: When I said "it looks like a very nice early N° 5 concert Embergher", I actually meant that I am 100% sure that it is an early N°5, I wouldn't miss on that # )
You've answered the important thing I wanted to know: it also sounded as an Embergher played with a traditional plectrum. Very pleased to hear that 

(I'm less pleased with Kego Fuji's Sonata played on the Seiffert, but I guess I shouldn't grumble about that )

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## Eugene

Thanks for all these marvelous reports and kind words, Plamen.

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Hi Plami,
thank you for the great report about the Eurofestival in Bamberg. You´ve made a lot of nice pictures and you give quite a good impression of the event, the musicians, the music, the instruments and the athmosphere.There are more pics to be found on the homepage of the German BDZ:

http://www.bdz-online.de/bamberg2006/fotos/

Best wishes
from Germany

Marlo Strauß
http://marlostrauss.kulturserver-nrw.de/

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## Plamen Ivanov

Hallo Marlo, 

Good to "see" you here! Unfortunately we didn`t have the chance to meet at the festival, but I hope we`ll meet someday somewhere sooner or later. 
I hope this won`t be your last post on the Mandolin Cafe Message Board! I know you have a lot of interesting things to say.

By the way I still enjoy the "Duetto Gentile"`s CD!

Please, send my best wishes to Prof. Marga Wilden-Huesgen!

Herzliche Gruesse aus Bulgarien!  
Plamen

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## billkilpatrick

rather late in the day to say thank you for posting all that but ... wonderful! - thank you!  looks like you had a ball.

just out of curiosity, how was the "trio delicado" received? any interest expressed in the charango?

kindest regards - bill

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## Plamen Ivanov

Hello Bill

"Trio Delicado" was received veeeeery, very well! There was such loud applause that they had to come three times back to the stage. The charango playing was impressive, the guitar player was very attractive and Caterina is so beautiful. And of course all three are great professional musicians. By the way Diego Jascalevich (the charango player) was also singing. I think it`s typical for the charango musicians. Here is his website. May be you will find something interesting there.

Good luck!
Plamen

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A message from Prof. Marga Wilden-Hüsgen:
Lieber Plamen,
it was nice to meet you at the Eurofestival in Bamberg. I´ve just read your report on Bamberg with great pleasure. It is very good that you tell the musicians of this well-known board what is going on with the mandolin in Europe. We had a lot of fine musicans here from all over the world. You know we in Germany like classical stuff a lot but we´re open to other styles too. We like Blues, Jazz and Blue Grass - if it´s played well and sounds good. The tone produced by the mandolin must be round, warm and full without disturbing sounds. We heard a wonderful mandolin-sound from Don Stiernberg from Chicago in Bamberg...
Best wishes
Prof. Marga Wilden-Hüsgen
PS: Thanks for your present. It found a place in my room at 
the Musikhochschule where all my students can see it.
 This message was translated by my husband Marlo Strauß

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## Jim Garber

Oh, Plamen, you travel in high circles with the royalty of the German mandolin world. Nice to hear the voice of the teacher of so many of those whose playing I admire.

Jim

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## John Goodin

Plamen, please accept my thanks also for your reports and photographs from Bamberg. It was almost like being there. I'm especially pleased that Marlo Strauß has shared his photos as well. I was delighted to spot a couple of photos that included my old friend Keith Harris.

Thanks also to Marlo for opening up a channel with the legendary Prof. Wilden-Hüsgen. I think it's great that she recognized so clearly the excellent tone that Don Stiernberg coaxes out of his F-5.

John Goodin

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## Jim Garber

> The tone produced by the mandolin must be round, warm and full without disturbing sounds.


The German aesthetic in a nutshell. Excellent!!

Jim

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## Embergher

> Originally Posted by  (marlo @ June 12 2006, 17:22)
> 
> The tone produced by the mandolin must be round, warm and full without disturbing sounds.
> 
> 
> The German aesthetic in a nutshell. Excellent!!
> 
> Jim


Yes, indeed, who could give a better definition of this sound than its creator.

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## Linda Binder

Greetings Plamen!
Thanks for posting information, photos and impressions about the Eurofestival. I hope to attend someday. It sounds like it was a great event. I hope you're doing well. Have a wonderful summer!
--Linda

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