On April 7, 2019 I was at a concert of the SWR Sinfonie Orchester in Freiburg. The program was composed of works by Frank Zappa. It began with three pieces from the Yellow Shark project. In 1992 Frank Zappa worked together with the Ensemble Moderne to produce a concert with his works played by a classical orchestra.
Concert of the SWR Sinfonieorchester – Frank Zappa Program April 2019
The mandolin player in Freiburg was Denise Wambsgans.
The world premiere of Yellow Shark took place at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt on Sept. 17, 1992. The recording of this concert is now available at youtube.
The World premiere took place on Sept. 17, 1992
Video – The Yellow Shark 1992
The mandolin player in 1992 was Detlef Tewes. I have made some screenshots from the video showing Detlef Tewes with his mandolin and with Frank Zappa. Jürgen Ruck played guitar and banjo. This concert is really enjoyable and has some great moments, especially in the second part of the concert.
Last summer the EGMYO (European Guitar and Mandolin Youth Orchestra) has met in Germany for a workshop and two concerts.
The workshop was organized by the Bund Deutscher Zupfmusiker (German plucked strings association). Now a set of videos about the workshop and the concerts is available. The workshop took place from July 30 to August 8 in the European Academy Otzenhausen (EAO) in Saarland in Germany.
The participants were about 50 young mandolin and guitar players from whole Europe, from Portugal in the south to Scotland in the north of Europe.
EGMYO 2016 – The Movie presentsthe participants, the team, the accordion-soloist Daniel Roth, the organisation, the rehearsals and the program in detail. The composer Marcel Wengler explains his composition “Konstellationen” which some of the players named the most interesting composition of the program.
The second playlist EGMYO 2016 contains the complete videos of the final concert on August 7, 2016 which took place in the Academy in Otzenhausen. The concert from August 6 in Echternach is also availabe as a video.
The program was composed of some very interesting compositions for plucked strings orchestra, including two pieces with accordion solo.
Norbert Sprongl (1892-1983) – Tanz-Suite op.103
Marcel Wengler (*1946) – Konstellationen and Wedding Dance
Luigi Salamon – Latin Bridge
Kenji Suehiro (*1979) – Meteorshower
Hiromitsu Kagajo (*1961) – Black Out
Bernard van Beurden: 4 Movements for Accordion and Mandolin and Guitar
Astor Piazzolla: Oblivion for accordion ansd plucked strings orchestra
Dominik Hackner: Danza Cubana
Giuseppe Manente: Reverie du Poète (arr. Dominik Hackner)
This playlist contains videos of all the compositions performed at the final concert of the EGMYO (European Guitar and Mandolin Youth Orchestra) under conductor Dominik Hackner at the European Academy in Otzenhausen on September 7th, 2016.
The Bluegrass Jamboree is organized every year by Rainer Zellner who is a mandolin player by himself and who joins the bands during the session at the end of each show with his Gibson F4.
During three weeks the three bands made a tour through Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Videos were filmed at several concerts.
I have collected the videos that were made from the concerts in Munich, Berlin, Dreieich, Bischofsmühle, Stuhr and Waldkraiburg in my playlist.
Enjoy the
The Honey Dewdrops
The Truffle Valley Boys
The Goodbye Girls
Playliste Bluegrass Jamboree 2016
Details about the Bluegrass Jamboree 2016 (German):
The Ensemble Hikari 光 has been invited to the show „Kaffee oder Tee?“ (coffee or tea?) of the German TV Station SWR on January 3rd, 2014. Now three videos have been made available at youtube.
The ensemble has been founded by mandolin players from Germany and Japan and it aims to make music by Japanese composers better known in Germany by their performances. In the TV show they played three pieces by Japanese composers Takashi Yuasa, Goshi Yoshida and Kunisaku Sakai.
The members of the ensemble Hikari are Denise Wambsganß (Germany, mandolin), Yasuyoshi Naito (Japan, mandolin), Hirotaka Nozaki (Japan, mandola), Michael Schwitzke (guitar) and Leo Ruf (percussion). Yasuyoshi Naito is a luthier for mandolins who has been living and working in Germany since the 1980s. He has built the Cremonese mandolin (four single strings) that is played by himself, as well as the mandola.