It's mandolin mania at Penn Museum concert series kickoff

What happens when a musician, a lawyer, a state government worker, a UPS employee and a library research specialist get together in their free time? You get the Harrisburg Mandolin Ensemble, a band of part-time mandolin aficionados committed to sharing their repertoire of eclectic acoustic tunes.

Yesterday the group did just that by kicking off the Penn Museum’s sixth annual Summer Nights Concert Series at the museum’s outdoor Stoner Courtyard.

The ensemble of five played a wide array of songs ranging from jazz and swing to bluegrass and folk. Their instruments of choice were the little-known mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass.

“I think we’re kind of hoping that the uniqueness and the flexibility of the type of instruments that we play will find us an audience,” said Henry Koretzky, the group’s mandocello player.

Their audience yesterday — composed mainly of Penn staff, students and families — was entertained by the band’s quirky instruments and their talkative nature between compositions.

Although a spectacle for audiences now, mandolin orchestras were an ordinary part of American communities in the early twentieth century. The group’s purpose is not only to entertain, but to promote this rich American heritage.

“There’s a certain novelty aspect of people never having been exposed to these instruments before … One of the things that we really enjoy doing is opening people’s eyes and ears to say, ‘Wow I didn’t know mandolins sound like that,’ ”Koretzky said.

The band’s creative use of the mandolin instrument family makes them stand out not only to an average music listener, but within mandolinist circles as well. Due to their members’ varied musical backgrounds, the Harrisburg Mandolin Ensemble experiments with different genres rather than sticking with traditional arrangements. In fact, their five man team is rather small compared to the 20 to 30 players mandolin orchestras usually have.

“We’re kind of in that awkward size range between, say, a string quartet and an orchestra,” Koretzky said. “That’s why we are doing our own arrangements and pulling in all kinds of songs from the unlikeliest places and having a lot of fun with that.”

The Summer Nights Concert Series will be taking place every Wednesday at 5 p.m. until Sept. 2. In the spirit of the Penn Museum’s multi-cultural collection, the series will feature cultural rhythms from around the globe ranging from Eastern European to Afro-Brazilian beats.

“The series is a wonderful way to spend some time in the museum’s garden and to share some global music while enjoying a happy hour," said Tena Thomason, the museum's assistant director for public programs. 

"It’s very relaxed."

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