East Tennessee State University Mandolin Orchestra

ETSU Mandolin Orchestra

The ETSU Mandolin Orchestra (founded 2014) is a course offered through the program in Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies (BLUE) that is housed in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. Director Lee Bidgood coaches mandolinists from a variety of backgrounds to cover a lot of ground: learning by ear,
The ETSU Mandolin Orchestra (founded 2014) is a course offered through the program in Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies (BLUE) that is housed in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. Director Lee Bidgood coaches mandolinists from a variety of backgrounds to cover a lot of ground: learning by ear, reading notation, learning about the history of mandolin orchestras, and exploring contemporary ways to continue the this tradition into the future.
The group recorded for this project in 2017 consists of community members, undergraduate majors in the BLUE program, graduate students in Appalachian Studies, as well as students of Exercise Science and Geosciences. Some of the players have been doing it for decades—one started just a year before the recordings were made.
Our orchestra draws from vernacular traditions of the mandolin as well as American and international mandolin orchestras. We adapt older repertoire and make new connections, balancing our musical and technical goals with the legacy of the mandolin orchestra as a social institution. Everyone is welcome in this group; music resonates as we share it.
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