Milwaukee is home to the longest-running mandolin orchestra in the country: the Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra. Founded in 1900, the MMO has continued to thrive for nearly 122 years. In early May, this unique orchestra traveled to Italy to play for other mandolin orchestras from around the world at the Venice Mandolin Festival.
The MMO performed in the Church of Madonna dell’Orto whose walls heard Vivaldi play his own music nearly 300 years ago. Throughout their performance, their delicate, bouncy songs like “My Lady Jazz,” “The Flying Wedge” and “The Hesitation Waltz” contrasted the heavily ornate gothic interior.
Initially, their concert at the final gala was cut short, as the festival received many more performers than they had anticipated, but the MMO was determined to play. After a bit of troubleshooting, the musicians set themselves up near the buffet and began to play their set. The director of the festival tried to stop them, but President of the MMO Board Fred Pike insisted they be allowed to play, so they did.
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“The people who were there who got to hear us were so excited,” said Korinthia Klein, one of MMO’s mandola (the mandolin’s viola equivalent) players. “For like an old-timey amateur mandolin orchestra, we were pretty impressed with ourselves. In the end, it was sort of more fun than if we had been on stage.”
That wasn’t the first time that week that the MMO took a stand for the sake of music. In many parts of Italy, including Venice, “buskers” or street artists are reviled for being a public nuisance and are required to have a permit in order to perform, according to Klein and Pike. That didn’t stop the mandolinists from playing their part one evening. Simply walking through the Basilica of San Marco’s main square with a mandolin case made the police suspicious.
“There’s a little piazza right next to [the Basilica of] San Marco, and there we were able to set up, and we were just fine,” said Pike, “We did get a nice crowd of people right by the water just off the San Marco. That was pretty cool.”
In that piazza, St. Mark’s Square, the MMO played “Mandolins in the Moonlight” underneath the Venice moon.
The MMO has come a long way from what once was a group of 20 gentlemen who simply wanted to study music together. Its rich history called for its very own historian and archivist, a role filled by Paul Ruppa.
According to Ruppa, Wisconsin has always been a hub for mandolin music. Since the 1880’s, mandolin clubs or orchestras could be found throughout the state, including Racine, Marshfield, Lacrosse and Eau Claire. However, Milwaukee has always been the hotspot.
Although the mandolin is typically associated with traditional classical music, the MMO has always found its niche in contemporary tunes. And on this trip to Venice, the group brought jazz to the halls of the Madonna dell’Orto for perhaps the first time ever.
To its members, the MMO is more than simply playing music. For Ruppa, it’s about preserving a legacy and spreading the word about Milwaukee’s long standing relationship with the mandolin. And for Pike, the community and friendship makes his music far more meaningful. Klein echoed Pike’s sentiment:
“The future of success for our music in Milwaukee has to be in supporting children and getting them involved,” she said. “Giving them real opportunities, not just to be exposed to music, but to get to play it themselves because that’s where a lot of the joy really is.”
The MMO has about 30 mandolinists but is always looking for more, with or without experience.
“The joy of being able to play with a group of people, even if nobody is any good,” Pike explained. “There’s a sense of wonder that you can’t get any place else.”
