Call in your reservations for our February 24 show with L’Esperance Mandolin Ensemble to 401-725-9272.
Rhode Island’s L’Esperance Mandolin Ensemble is proud to announce the release of their new CD, Uisge Beatha – “Water of Life,” featuring tunes from Celtic and British folk traditions. For centuries composers have incorporated folk tunes into their own music. Byrd and Beethoven, Vivaldi and Dvorak, Grieg and Grainger, and contemporary composers like Steven Antonelli, Michael Mayerfeld Bell, and Jim Dalton, who appear on this CD, have all drawn from traditional melodies for inspiration for their music. With “Water of Life,” L’Esperance Mandolin Ensemble celebrates that intersection between traditional and classical music. As lovers of both the energy and passion of traditional music and the rich harmonic and rhythmic potential of classical music, L’Esperance showcases music from folk revivals going back hundreds of years and into the present. L’Esperance features almost 30 musicians of different backgrounds and ages from the Cape Cod area, Rhode Island and Connecticut, who come together to enjoy the pleasure of making music with each other. Since 1994, L’Esperance has been sharing that joy with audiences around New England. Director of L’Esperance Mandolin Ensemble, Joshua Bell, was named the Concertmaster of the Providence Mandolin Orchestra in 1979. He has played with the North American Mandolin Ensemble, The American Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra, the Classical Mandolin Society of America.
