Mandolino Barocco February 9, 2013

The Santa Cruz Baroque Festival proudly announces the start of its 40th concert season!

Each year the Baroque Festival presents an assortment of five concerts with music and instruments from the time before the American Revolution (and occasionally beyond). Concert I - 'Mandolino Barocco' on February 9 - features Hideki Yamaya and John Schneiderman, both known for their mastery of an ecclectic assortment of historic to modern plucked string instruments.

Yamaya is based in Oregon and performs all over the West Coast, as well as in Canada, Japan, Great Britain, and Italy. But there is a Santa Cruz connection: Yamaya earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from UC Santa Cruz, where he studied with Robert Strizich, and worked with Burman-Hall at UC Santa Cruz. He continued his studies in lute and guitar performance with John Schneiderman at UC Irvine.

This spring Yamaya returns to Santa Cruz with a program of music for the mandolino. The baroque-era mandolino is not commonly heard on stage, but many of us are familiar with the sounds of bluegrass or Neapolitan mandolins (the 'taterbug'), or perhaps even the Ecuadorean 'bandolin', all of which are descendants of its baroque ancestor. A cousin of the lute with roots in medieval times, the mandolino became popular for solo playing and accompaniment in the 17th and 18th centuries.

An internationally-acclaimed artist on lute and guitar, Yamaya recently released a CD of music for the mandolino, featuring music from the 1759 Dalla Casa manuscript, played on a faithful copy of a 17thcentury instrument. For this recording and the upcoming concert program he has teamed up with his former mentor, virtuoso lutenist and guitarist John Schneiderman, a frequent festival flyer, and highly respected artist in the community of early music.

Official Website: http://www.scbaroque.org