BELLOWS FALLS — Stone Church Arts presents the Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music (FMCM) in a concert at Immanuel Episcopal Church on Sunday, July 28, at 3 p.m.
The performance caps the three-day weekend designed for the classical mandolin community and concertgoers interested in classical chamber music.
Festival organizers said they wanted to create learning and performance opportunities for those interested in chamber music composed for mandolin and related instruments.
Led by mandolinists August Watters, a Boston-area teacher and composer, and Emanuele Cappellotto, visiting from Italy, FMCM participants will rehearse together for the Sunday afternoon concert.
According to Watters, there's a wealth of music for mandolin-guitar ensembles, though most has been lost for generations and needs only to be rediscovered by the public.
FMCM provides an opportunity to explore mandolin ensemble music, from baroque to romantic and contemporary works, he says.
FMCM is open to anyone who plays mandolin, mandola, or guitar, and can read standard notation. Participants divide their time between rehearsals and workshops. Musicians practice in various chamber ensembles as preference and ability dictate.
In addition, players attend workshops on technique, repertoire, and theory.
The festival concludes with the Sunday afternoon concert when faculty and participants demonstrate for the public the many sounds of the concert mandolin.
“We plan to make the festival an annual event,” Watters said. “This year we are fortunate to have such a distinguished participant as Emanuele.”
Cappellotto brings Italian sound
Emanuele Cappellotto, born in Citadella, Italy, in 1981, where he still works and performs, began his musical studies at the piano under the guidance of Maura Mazzonetto, and then studied the mandolin at the Conservatorio Cesare Pollini with Ugo Orlandi, the man whom Watters calls the most famous mandolinist in Italy.
Cappellotto works as a soloist with the Orchestra of Collegium Symphonium Veneto, Camerata Classical Mandolin, and the Guitar Ensemble of the Philharmonic Cittadella.
In addition to appearing at the Sunday afternoon concert in Bellows Falls, he has joined Watters this summer for a New England tour playing music for the mandolin.
Watters, the festival's organizer, is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he developed and teaches new curricula designed for the needs of improvising string players, as well as classes in harmony, composition, arranging, and performance.
His work bridges contemporary classical music, jazz and folk music traditions. He is also an Emmy award-winning arranger, with dozens of studio credits as arranger, orchestrator, and conductor for television and film music.
Watters began as a jazz guitarist, but now his musical life is almost wholly devoted to playing and promoting the mandolin.
A multi-stylistic, improvising mandolinist, Watters has worked with some of the leading figures in today's revival of the mandolin, performing in Italy, Germany, England, the Czech Republic, England, Canada, and the United States.
He plays a wide array of music on the mandolin, from classical to jazz, and from the Baroque to contemporary. For instance, last month he played the mandolin in the world premiere recording of Lukas Foss's Symphony No. 2 with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
Through his devotion to promoting the instrument, Watters has formed several mandolin groups and festivals. He founded Boston Mandolins, the New England Mandolin Ensemble, and Cape Cod Mandolin.
In addition to FMCM, he has created the Cape Cod Festival of Mandolins.
“The festival in Cape Cod performs a whole array of music for the mandolin,” says Watters. “Not just classical, but also bluegrass, jazz, old time and blues.”
In the Romantic era of the 19th century, Watters says, the mandolin became an enormously popular instrument in Europe. This period coincided with the great immigration to America from Italy, so not surprisingly, the mandolin also came to our country then.
“Mandolins were everywhere in turn-of-the-century America,” says Watters. “Many mandolin groups were formed then, and much music was written for them to play. It became vital to the creation of an American music. The instrument seeped into the music of string bands playing blues and bluegrass.”
'A different kind of festival...'
Watters says that the Festival of Mandolin Chamber Music in Bellows Falls is a different kind of festival than in Cape Cod, as the focus here is completely on classical mandolin.
“The Italian Baroque created a great repertoire of music for the mandolin. Many people know Vivaldi's mandolin concerto, but that is just the tip of the iceberg of this music. Most of this music has been forgotten and is waiting to be re-discovered,” Watters says.
FMCM was inspired by Eugene Friesen's Vermont Improvisation Intensive and his Creative Cello workshops at Stone Church Arts.
“Eugene invited me up to his events,” says Watters. “Friesen is also the artistic director of Stone Church Arts, and he suggested this as great place for a classic mandolin festival. I was excited because musicians already know Bellows Falls as a spot on the map where these kind of things happen, and we could also tap into the mandolin players and traditions already thriving in Vermont.”