Looking for a unique way to celebrate Mother’s Day? The Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra will host its second annual Mother’s Day Concert on Saturday, May 11, 2013, at 7:00 p.m. at St. John’s Lutheran Church of Highland, 311 Cumberland Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15237. General admission tickets are $10 at the door, $7 for seniors 60+, and children under 14 are admitted free.
The program explores musical bonds between folk, classical, and world music, compositions by modern composers written specifically for the mandolin family of instruments, as well as spirited Eastern European dance tunes.
The Mother’s Day concert will feature nationally-known The Gypsy Strings, a Pittsburgh-based quintet well-known for their long tenure at the former Gypsy Café in Pittsburgh’s South Side. The group is led by renowned violinist George Batyi.
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Other Pittsburgh-based artists slated to perform at this concert are vocalist Gary Burdick, vocalist, and duo-mandolinists Suguru Ishizaki and his 13-year-old daughter Hanna Ishizaki. They will solo in the orchestra’s premier performance of the Vivaldi Concerto for 2 Mandolins and Orchestra in G major. Oud soloist Ron Lupish, and the quartet, Mandolinisti Italiani, will round out the program. The oud is a lute-shaped stringed instrument from the Middle East. It is believed that the Pittsburgh Mandolin Orchestra is the first group to use this ancient instrument in a solo capacity in concert. As always, the Orchestra is under the direction of Master Folk-Musician Charley Rappaport.