Ger Mandolin Orchestra

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The GER MANDOLIN ORCHESTRA is the brainchild of Israeli-American Avner Yonai, whose search for his family roots in Poland led him to a tattered photograph of his grandfather and two other relatives playing in a pre-WWII Jewish mandolin orchestra in the Polish town of Gora Kalwaria (Ger in Yiddish). The photograph inspired Yonai to create a contemporary version of this musical group, as a memorial project for his own family and the orchestra members, most of whom perished in the Holocaust. This all-star group of international musicians features authentic instrumentation and repertoire that re-creates what at one time was the most popular form of community music-making in Jewish life. Mandolin orchestras proliferated across the towns and shtetlakh (villages) of Jewish eastern-Europe, and flourished in the immigrant communities of North America, before losing popularity in the postwar years. The new Ger Mandolin Orchestra brings back to life this quintessential Jewish musical form, achieving a rare synergy between history and cutting-edge musical creation. The group’s repertoire includes a mix of Klezmer and Yiddish music with Polish, Russian, Ukrainian, Italian, Czech and classical selections.

The Ger Mandolin Orchestra is led by renowned multi-instrumentalist Mike Marshall, a multiple Grammy nominee/winner for his work over the last 35 years with such artists as Bela Fleck, David Grisman, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, and the Modern Mandolin Quartet. A master of many musical styles, Marshall is known best for his work as a bluegrass and “new acoustic music” innovator, as a significant figure in the revival of classical mandolin music, and as the leading American proponent of Brazilian choro music. Marshall is joined in the Ger Mandolin Orchestra by an all-star cast of ten mandolinists from Canada, the US, Europe and Israel, including Chris Acquavella, Tom Cohen, Tim Connell, Brian Oberlin, Dana Rath, Adam Roskiewicz, Eric Stein, Don Stiernberg, Jeff Warschauer, and Radim Zenkl.

Watch the Ger Mandolin Orchestra on YouTube:
1. AFP News: The Ger Mandolin Orchestra in Poland, September 2011
2. 13-Min Documentary about the creation of the Ger Mandolin Orchestra
3. Ger Mandolin Orchestra live: Shalom Aleichem

EVENT INFO:
Thursday November 7, 7:30pm
George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St.
Tickets $36 + HST – on sale Monday September 16
For tickets call Ticketmaster toll-free 1-855-985-2787 or buy online (please note Ticketmaster adds a $6.25 service charge per ticket)
To avoid service charges, purchase tickets in person at the Toronto Centre for the Arts box office, 11am-6pm Tuesday to Saturday, 12-4pm on Sundays.

HELP US BRING HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS TO THIS EVENT
“We have a lot of stone monuments, but this is a living monument…it brings something to life rather than honouring something that’s dead.”
-Prof. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Columbia University NY
Program Director, Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw

Ashkenaz is pleased to partner with the Yellow Rose Project (YRP), producers of the Senior Prom, to bring Holocaust Survivors to this concert at no charge. With your help we will share this special cultural experience with those for whom it will have so much meaning.

$125 – Purchases two tickets for yourself, plus a free ticket for a Holocaust survivor.
$100 – Purchases one ticket for yourself, plus a free ticket for a Holocaust survivor.
$72 – Purchase a free ticket for a Holocaust survivor.

A charitable tax receipt will be provided for the total minus $36/per ticket for each ticket used. If you are not attending the concert, you will receive a tax receipt for the full amount of the donation.

Note: this opportunity is only available directly through the Ashkenaz office.
Contact us at 416-979-9901 or by email at [email protected] for more information.

Presented in association with Holocaust Education Week and Yellow Rose Project

Media Sponsors: Classical 96FM and AM740

This event is generously sponsored by Moses, Libby and Sam Znaimer; by Helen Stollar in memory of her husband, Jack Stollar; by the Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Toronto; and by Anonymous.