The Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra will be performing this Saturday at the Stoughton Opera House with special guest Mike Marshall. The Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra started in 1900 as a group of musicians who enjoyed playing together and has since evolved into what it is today: musicians dedicated to playing traditional American mandolin orchestra music.

If you are like me and have no idea what that really means, here is what I came up with: In the 1890’s, Orville Gibson came up with an innovate design for mandolins, which had traditionally been lute-like. Gibson designed a pear-shaped A-style mandolin and a fancier Florentine style mandolin. To market his new styles of mandolins, he decided to design an entire family of mandolins, each with a different size and sound. To promote all of these mandolins, Gibson came up with the idea of a mandolin orchestra. The idea worked as Mandolin orchestras became popular in the early 1900’s, and most of these players bought Gibson mandolins. (Check out the full article by Lee Griffith.)
The performance is at 7:30pm on Saturday evening.