Program Highlight Flashback: Seattle Mandolin Orchestra Winter Holiday Concert
Although the libraries continue to be closed and we continue to social distance, there’s no reason we can’t take trip—a virtual trip, that is—down memory lane. Below is a program highlight of the Seattle Mandolin Orchestra Winter Holiday Concert sponsored by Bellevue Friends of the Library. Enjoy!
On a dark winter’s day, the library was warmed up by the soothing sounds of mandolin music. The Seattle Mandolin Orchestra performed a winter holiday concert at the Bellevue Library, right in the middle of the 1st floor stacks. Led by their conductor, Joseph White, an orchestra of 18 mandolins, 1 stand-up bass and 1 ukulele serenaded about 100 library patrons. They swayed and toe-tapped as the orchestra transported them on a holiday musical journey across cultures and throughout the ages. We heard everything from Ladino tunes, classic Italian compositions from the 1700s, a Puerto Rican jingle, to the hang-loose sounds of Hawaii holiday cheer. They even proved that mandolins could indeed rock with a rendition of Jingle Bell Rock. For one lovely hour, the music made the dark dreary day into a true winter wonderland.