Portland as mando city, continued
Well, Tim Connell, a member of the esteemed Ger Mandolin Orchestra and a noted devotee of Brazilian choro, calls Portland home.
Brian Oberlin, also a Ger Mandolin Orchestra member, as well as director of the Michigan Mandolin Orchestra, lived in Portland for 12 years, establishing both the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra and the annual River of the West Mandolin Camps.
Chris Thile, a singer, songwriter, composer, and radio personality, also had a Portland address while hosting National Public Radio’s “Life From Here” show.
Meanwhile, mando-luminaries such as David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Radim Zenkl, Don Stiernberg and Carlo Aonzo have regularly performed before full houses, making Portland a must-stop for artists on tour.
Lots of people noticed this swirling constellation of mando stars – so remarkable that Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein took a passing poke at Portland’s mandolin obsessions in their satiric “Portlandia” TV show.
But Portland’s love affair with tremolo blossomed long before TV, back during the mandolin’s Golden Age, when mandolins were the most popular instruments in America. During the 1890s, mandolin manufacturers, led by Gibson, sent demonstration ensembles around the country to perform and show off their instruments. Many delighted concertgoers were inspired to “play while you pay” and signed up and buy instruments on credit. This ingenious marriage of art and marketing triggered an explosion in popularity for the mandolin across America.
Mandolins were a natural fit in Portland
Portland jumped right on board.
Soon, most schools, churches, clubs and civic organizations sponsored their own mandolin ensembles. A quick peek around Portland’s “attic memory” bears this out.
In 1898, the Florentine Troubadours, who borrowed their name from an 1860 painting depicting 14th century musicians, put on a concert in Portland. All the Troubadours were women — notable for their time.
A mandolin orchestra called the Warren Club entertained members of Portland’s First Presbyterian Church in 1902.
The following year, the Webber Mandolin and Guitar Club put on a public concert.
In 1905, the Oregon Glee and Mandolin clubs hit the headlines with a double concert well received by Portland’s arts writers.The October 1914 edition of The Cadenza magazine featured a cover story about the “musically gifted lads and lassies” in H.A. Webber’s Portland-based Juvenile Orchestra, which was launching a vaudeville tour.
But just a decade later, the mandolin’s enchanting bloom began to wither. After World War I, the guitar supplanted the mandolin as America’s most popular instrument, a crown the “six-string mandolin” still wears today.
This shift in taste cut into the mandolin’s once iron-clad popularity. Over the years, the thousands of mandolin ensembles that flourished across the United States and Canada dwindled to a relative handful. Today, the Classical Mandolin Society of America recognizes about 50 mandolin orchestras.
Quiet for a while, but never forgotten
Though Portland’s mandomania ebbed somewhat after the First World War, the city kept the spirit alive for the faithful.Renowned performer Rudy Cipolla cut his mandolin teeth in Portland, where his family settled after emigrating from Calabria, Italy, in 1908, when he was just 8. Following his musical father’s example, he taught himself to play both mandolin and mandocello, and began to perform around Portland by the ripe old age of 12.
In 1931, Cipolla moved to San Francisco, where he lit up the mandolin scene for five decades, composing and performing while running a bookstore at the same time.Meanwhile, Cipolla’s Bay Area friend, Gino Pellegrini, made a special point of bringing the ensemble he founded, the Aurora Mandolin Orchestra, north to perform in Portland. After concerts, the Aurora members and mandolinists from Portland and Seattle cooked up some legendary all-star jam sessions.
Building a strong mandolin revival, note by note
Fast forward to 1984, when Ken Culver, an excellent mandolinist with an ambitious vision, founded the Portland Mandophonic Orchestra after systematically recruiting fellow pickers for years.The PMO did a lot to reawaken and fire up the city’s mandolin awareness. The orchestra tackled everything from classical to the Great American Songbook - to wide acclaim. Culver, now retired and living in Southern California, said at first, PMO members were a little timid on stage.
“But, by golly, they soon got to like it — especially when they heard the audience clapping,” Culver said. “We really had a lot of fun.”
Culver expanded Portland’s mandolin profile by organizing several West Coast Mandolin Conventions that attracted orchestras and their members from San Diego, California, to Vancouver, British Columbia.Unfortunately, after a successful 17-year-run, the PMO played its last notes in 2001, creating a musical void begging to be filled.
Enter Brian Oberlin, a Michigan-born, dyed-in-the-denim bluegrasser with a broad musical curiosity that led him to explore genres as diverse as Celtic, Western swing and classical.
While still living in Michigan, Oberlin stumbled across a directory of mandolin orchestras.“I’d never even heard of a mandolin orchestra before,” Oberlin said. “But the idea of a whole stage full of mandolins playing together was exciting to me.”
In 2010, Oberlin took the plunge and founded the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra. Several former members of the old Portland Mandophonics quickly signed up, providing an experienced core. Oberlin then recruited other mandolinists from the crowd at nonprofit Artichoke Community Music school, from his River of the West Mandolin Camps and from among his many students.
Reaching across genres, Oberlin had the OMO perform everything from Baroque, Romantic and Classical, folk - and swing-inspired pieces to jazz, Tin Pan Alley, novelty songs and Christmas carols. Oberlin also booked a long list of distinguished guest performers.
Meanwhile, Michael and Tarisa Tognetti of Vancouver, Washington, active OMO volunteers, elevated Portland’s mandolin reputation by their election to the Classical Mandolin Society of America’s board of directors. Tarisa served as board treasurer for the CMSA. Both helped to produce CMSA Portland 2014, a convention that drew mandolinists from around the world.
Establishing an enduring foundation
During the OMO‘s second year, Executive Director Elizabeth Farrell‑Oberlin established a board of directors to serve as the orchestra’s governing body. Farrell-Oberlin selected the board members based on their skill sets both within and outside the orchestra. The inaugural board consisted of Farrell‑Oberlin, Stuart Celarier, Rick Bella, Tarisa Tognetti and Michael Tognetti. This group began shaping the organization’s programs and activities, building what would become the orchestra’s foundation.
But in 2017, Brian Oberlin felt the pull of family and announced he would resign so he could move back to Michigan. Elizabeth Farrell, the orchestra’s executive director and board president, also resigned to focus on her family and her law practice. With these changes, the OMO Board of Directors assumed full responsibility for the orchestra’s governance and administration. Michael Tognetti was elected as the orchestra’s second board president, and Tarisa Tognetti was elected treasurer.
The board requested that its members stand for election by dues-paying orchestra members. Meanwhile, Stuart Celarier stepped down to focus on family while continuing to perform in the mandocello section, and two new board members were elected: Chuck Whitman as board secretary and Anna Steirer as member at‑large.The board also redistributed its responsibilities among board members, matching the duties to the members’ strengths. These jobs included outreach, graphics and promotion, financial management, secretarial and administrative tasks such as rehearsal‑site coordination, performance‑venue and overall organizational administration such as insurance, contract authorization, regulatory submissions, financial decisions and bookings.
More changes to fine-tune the OMO
After considering several candidates, the OMO Board hired former orchestra member Christian McKee as music director to replace Oberlin. The orchestra also moved its headquarters from Hillsboro, Oregon, to Portland. All the moves improved the odds that the orchestra would survive future changes and remain a community fixture.
Although the orchestra had performed in venues throughout Oregon and Washington — from Portland to Pendleton and from Salem to Ridgefield — in 2018, the OMO was invited by the Bund Deutscher Zupfmusiker to perform as a featured ensemble at Eurofestival Zupfmusik in Brüschal, Germany. This quadrennial festival celebrates stringed‑instrument music, bringing together orchestras, small ensembles and soloists from around the world.
Oberlin and McKee both conducted OMO performances at the festival, a symbolic hand-off of the baton just before Oberlin left.McKee, a multi-instrumentalist and occasional composer who plays in several other ensembles, inherited a solid orchestra with a well-established reputation and following.
But that didn’t stop him from putting his own mark on the operations.
He enlisted some of the OMO’s finest musicians to form the OMO Chamber Ensemble, which has played on Portland radio and TV, as well as performing opening sets for concerts by the full orchestra.McKee recruited classical guitarists to join the OMO, filling out the orchestra’s middle-to-lower voices while adding emphasis on chord structure. For certain concerts, he has brought in upright string bassists to supplement the thump and texture of the OMO’s own mandobass.
He also led the OMO through a free concert put on for the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver, Washington, to wild cheers and applause.
Meanwhile, McKee strengthened the OMO’s image among mandophiles by taking an active role in the Classical Mandolin Society of America, currently serving on the board of directors. While juggling OMO duties, he was a key player in producing the CMSA’s convention in Portland in October 2025.
The last chord in the convention’s finale still can be heard — and felt — in Portland, where the OMO has remained focused on making music and sustaining a strong, vibrant, and enduring organization.
(All photos and graphics that aren’t property of the Oregon Mandolin Orchestra appear here courtesy of the Multnomah County Library or were downloaded from the public domain)