Magical coincidence/experience

[vkioulaphides]

Greetings to all, dear friends.

Just back from my annual "escapade" to Athens, which, this time around, was graced by the most magical coincidences and experiences:

First, a violist friend (member of the Athens Lyric Opera, mandolinist/mandolist, and founder of a mandolin ensemble) invited me to a concert by I Solisti Veneti at the Megaron, the "palace" of the arts; on the program, among other things, a mandolin concerto by Vivaldi, as performed by the illustrious Ugo Orlandi, a frequent collaborator with the aforementioned, and equally illustrious ensemble. Needless to say, the concert was a delight.

It also happened that, during my week in Athens, Maestro Orlandi was giving a mandolin master-class, and directing an ad hoc mandolin ensemble at the Orpheion, one of the many branches of the Athens Conservatory. Hearing that I was in town, Ugo graciously invited me (via a participant, fresh in from Holland!) to sit in one evening. And so I did, on Thursday; bringing along my humble, "beach-house" mandolin, I had the privilege to meet, greet, play with, and shake hands with some of the finest mandolinists, and all-around nicest people I have EVER met in my life.

As a personal anecdote --extraordinary fond to me alone, but perhaps too trivial to anyone else-- I share this with you: I arrived early, as is always my custom, for that sit-in; the conservatory was four, steep blocks uphill from the (Old) Library of the Athens University. After loitering for a while, I decided to go upstairs, and see what I would find. Climbing the stairs, I heard familiar strains wafting through the air: two mandolinists, tutor and protege, working through... my own De Grote Markt! I knocked on the door where the lesson was taking place, and entered with "Buona sera, Maestro. Mi chiamo Victor."

The rest, as the saying goes, is history. While of course ALL my visits to my birthplace are memorable, I dare say that this one was particularly so. Perhaps some of my charming partners-in-crime (Margriet, the jolly Dutchwoman; Giorgos, Ugo's disciple; Ana, the gracious Spaniard; Dimitris, Spiros, members of the Attika ensemble, and all various and sundry Greek mandolinists/mandolists/mandoloncellists in attendance that evening) will chime in. Some times even I, flamboyant in verbiage as I am, must hold my breath for a while; hyperventilation is a clear and imminent danger at such a moment as this.

Cheers to all those who cultivate the lovely mandolin, and the friendships it inspires!

Victor

[Jim Garber]

Wonderful, Victor. As usual, I live vicariously thru you. BTW was my Garbertone plectrum present for all these festivities? I was there in spirit in any case.

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you, Brother James of the (Un?)Holy Order of the Bowl. Indeed, your Garbertone plectrum was in my hands, Some Enchanted Evening-- if I may so plagiarize for a moment. It made quite a sensation, too... In fact, if you ever wish to actually manufacture these, I may have a few customers for you ;-) On Saturday evening, my violist friend called to say good-bye, and expressed a most keen interest in "arming" himself and his ensemble with such Weapons of Class Instruction. He is also looking for a decent (CGDA) mandola, but that belongs to a whole other discussion.

Cheers,

Victor

[Alex Timmerman]

Hello Victor,

Thanks for this wonderful update of the time in Athens! Friendship, indeed that's what it is all about!


Cheers,

Alex

[vkioulaphides]

And thank you, my dear friend, for the ENTIRELY unexpected, not-so-little gift you sent me, via Margriet. I will share with Tamara, as instructed, soon enough. Perhaps she will attend the final event of Carlo Aonzo's workshop in New York --in a mere couple of weeks!-- and so I can hand-deliver said gift to her.

Cheers,

Victor

[Bob A]

It's a synchronistic universe here in Serendip. I dunno, Victor, maybe you need to just start walking with your mandolin until you come to a place where it's mistaken for a winnowing fan?

[Margriet]

My part of the story is also about friendship. What mandolins can be able to do! It happened from buying/selling a mandolin and e-mailing there grew friendship between Ioannis in Athens and me and my husband Beert in the Netherlands. It was him who sent me the flyer with the concerts and the masterclass. He on his part got the flyer of Giorgos, who studies at Ugo Orlandi and who organised this event. That Ioannis and Giorgos know each other is also because of mandolins, they met on the street and recognised the nice shape of the bowlback mandolin.
The decision to go to Athens was rapidly made, to meet our friend and other mandolin-loving Greek people and to have lessons at Ugo, at whom our teacher Sebastiaan also had studied. I thought there might be more people interested and I informed Victor and mandolincafe.
About the event: before I could not imagine that it was as nice as it was. At the concert Ugo played the Vivaldi Concerto RV 93 and among the encores there was the second part of the RV 558, performed with Ugo Orlandi and Giorgos Goumenakis on the mandolin.
The class took place during 4 days: in the morning more individual playing and in the evenings there were joining more people and we played in an ad hoc ensemble, a prima vista, with quartets i.a of Telemann, Munier. We played several hours and worked hard. Besides the playing and technical things that came up, Ugo teaches a lot about musical and cultural history. In that way the music and the pieces we choosed were placed in their context, necessary for being more consciousness and making music more than playing notes.
It was a great pleasure to be together with these people with one common thing: the love for the mandolin. Whether you play viola, guitar, double bass, piano, compose, teach, do not play yet or a bit, on that moment you see everyone dedicated to the tiny little mandolin and her bigger brothers.
Ugo and Giorgos said that Victor was welcome at any time to meet, so why not joining and playing ? And music is the most universal language we all speak. I can agree with Victor, when he says: I had the privilege to meet, greet, play with, and shake hands with some of the finest mandolinists, and all-around nicest people I have EVER met in my life. We experienced lots of friendship and warmth! Unfortunately our friend and mandolin-lover Ioannis was not able to take part by reasons of family and work. We missed Greece and the nice Greek people already at the airport going back home and cannot wait until a next time………..

[vkioulaphides]

Indeed, Bob, perhaps the mandolin will be my own Odysseus' oar some day... I concur wholeheartedly with Margriet, and add yet another trivium-- of which there are so many that it will probably take me MONTHS to "process": at the concert, Ugo played a new Annamaria Calace model, the one with the extra-long fingerboard on all four courses, and the correspondingly "higher" (i.e. closer to the neck) sound-hole. Hard to tell, where most of the magic came from, the instrument or the player... I'd say both, of course, with a fair slant of weight towards the latter.

[Jonathan]

Wonderful story, Victor - and it reminds of one summer when I was a staff musician at Pinewoods, a summer retreat in Massachusetts for enthusiasts of Anglo/American folk dance. During one of my free periods I was swimming in one of the lovely ponds for which Pinewoods is beloved, when I heard drifting across the water the faraway strains of a waltz of mine being played on a flute. I had to swim clear across the pond (a small lake, really) to find out who was unknowingly serenading me. So I know the gratifying feeling of hearing one's own composition being played by one unconscious of the composer's presence. Bravo, Maestro Victor!

[vkioulaphides]

Thank you kindly, my friend. And there was, indeed, much other gratification, unrelated to me in particular-- and, for that reason, more significant to the mandolin world in general. While introducing Maestro Orlandi and his disciple, Giorgos Goumenakis, before the two-mandolin encore, the ever-gracious Claudio Scimone said to the audience: "Greece, of course, has its own, very long mandolin-tradition. But Giorgos also came to our country, to study with Maestro Orlandi." It is, of course, OVERLY modest to say "also" and "our", speaking of Italy and the mandolin. Still, it was profoundly gratifying for me to hear such an acknowledgment of the mandolin-tradition in Greece-- something I have clamored for in vacuo for eons, now, simply because, well... I know it is so. I'm the fifth generation of a mandolin-playing family, and we're obviously not alone in this. The sad fact that something may have been forgotten doesn't of course mean it never existed at all. History matters.

Cheers,

Victor