CMSA Fellow Robert Margo is taking a sabbatical from CMSA, but dropped us a note expressing his continuing passion for classical music, in connection to our 2023 convention in Kansas City, even:

Dear All,

Yesterday I had the good fortune to attend another concert by Jacob Reuven and Adam Levin, as Duo Mantar, arrangements and originals for mandolin & classical guitar.   Like the one I attended last summer, this was in the Multi-Cultural Arts Center in East Cambridge, MA, walking distance from the MBTA subway stop at MIT.  Except for one piece, the program was entirely different — one of the Vivaldi Four Seasons (“Spring”); Piazzolla (Libertango); the Gidon Kremer arrangement for violin and orchestra of the “Spring” movement of Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons”; a phenomenal new four movement work by the great Brazilian bandolim player Hamilton de Hollanda also on a “Seasons” theme with Brazilian melody/harmony and rhythms; and another new work by Avner Dorman, “Bodies of Water,” for mandolin & classical guitar, also excellent; this is the second such work (the first was premiered at the Duo Mantar concert last summer), and the third overall for mandolin that Avner was written (the first was the concerto for Avi Avital).

I talked with Adam and Yaki after and they were extremely pleased to see me and again spoke very highly of the CMSA and how much they & Yaki’s wife, Mari Carmen Simon, enjoyed performing for us and being involved in En Masse.  I’m going to write up a concert review for an upcoming issue of The Mandolin Journal, just waiting on some details from them on the program.

You can learn more about the performance and Jacob Reuven’s other performances on Facebook.