Mandolin virtuoso Raffaele La Ragione is visiting London for a concert with La Serenissima on Thursday 23rd May at St Martins-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, London. LME seized the opportunity of this visit to arrange a mandolin and guitar workshop with him on Sunday 26th May from 3.00-5.00pm at LME's rehearsal venue, Crown Court Church in Covent Garden, WC2B 5EZ. The workshop is open to mandolinists, mandola players and guitarists, and we look forward to seeing you all there! Information and details about the workshop, along with registration, can be obtained by emailing: [email protected]

Remastered by and with thanks to Fabio Gallucci/The Mandolin World

Raffaele Calace (1863 – 1934) was an Italian mandolin player, composer, and luthier.
Calace was born in Naples, Italy, the son of Antonio Calace, a successful instrument maker. He initially trained to be a musician, discovered the mandolin, and soon became a virtuoso. 
After Calace graduated with high honours from the Regio Conservatorio di Musica in Naples, he set out to elevate the mandolin's place in music. To achieve this, he toured Europe and Japan, giving concerts on the Neapolitan mandolin and liuto cantabile. 
The liuto cantabile is a bass variant of the mandolin family that scholars believe Neapolitan luthiers of the Vinaccia family created in the last decade of the 19th century, and that Raffaele Calace subsequently perfected.
Calace made three long-playing phonograph records on which he plays mandolin and liuto cantabile.
He wrote about 200 compositions for mandolin. These include concert works for mandolin solo and compositions for mandolin and other instruments—duets with piano, trio combinations with mandola and guitar, the Romantic Mandolin Quartet (two mandolins, mandola, and guitar), and quintets.
Calace also wrote pedagogical works, including a mandolin method and a method for playing the liuto cantabile. The mandolin method was published in 1910 and elaborates on the 18th-century Italian mandolin tutors by Giovanni Battista Gervasio (c. 1725–c. 1785), Gabriele Leone (c. 1725–c. 1790) and others. It shows the development of the traditional Italian playing style. 
The Calace school forms a bridge between other modern methods for mandolin, such as those by Raffaele Calace's countryman Silvio Ranieri (1882-1956), a Roman virtuoso who settled in Brussels, and the American-based Italian mandolinist Giuseppe Pettine (1874-1966).

LMQ had a very special concert on 17th February - we were delighted to introduce the mandolin, its history and music to a brand new audience. The Waltham Forest Music Society has a large membership, and does a fantastic job in promoting classical music - they were wonderful hosts, had a full house, and gave us a sparkling review!
 “On Friday last, 17th February, the London Mandolin Quartet - Maxine Wiltshire {mandolin}, Anna Lombardi {mandolin}, Chan Yuk Fan, Ryan {guitar} and Tom Smith {guitar} - played to an audience of over 100 concert-goers who had assembled expectantly in All Saints church. 
Although quartets had featured in previous seasons, this was the first occasion on which such a combination of instruments had been the focus of a WFMS recital. And what a recital it was! The programme of music, carefully-selected under the supervision of the LMQ’s founder, Maxine Wiltshire, to reflect the mandolin’s development across the centuries, ranged from Pachelbel in the 1600s to Sandoval in the present day.
The recital fell into two distinct halves, with Baroque music (Boyce, JS Bach, Pachelbel, D. Scarlatti and Vivaldi) played before the interval and music from the 20th century (Hadjidakis, Sandoval, Amadei, Piazzolla and Baumann) after. The sedate first half conjured images of times long past while in the second the sounds we tend to associate with mandolins came to the fore as familiar tremolos immediately created the illusion of having been transported from Highams Park to the coast of the Aegean or Mediterranean. Most of the pieces were special arrangements for mandolin and guitar (e.g. Boyce’s 1st Symphony) while others had been created for this instrumental combination. Special mention must be made of Entre la Sombras by Ricardo Sandoval and Suite Marinaresca by Amadeo Amedei in which the timbres of each instrument blended perfectly. It’s a shame that these pieces aren’t heard more widely and, to my knowledge, neither has been recorded. 
At various points, Tom spoke about the mandolin’s history while Maxine displayed her selection of antique instruments. These were on show during the interval while the musicians were at hand to chat to the audience, pose for photos and answer questions. 
The enthusiastic applause which greeted the final notes of Baumann’s Andalusian Serenade clearly demonstrated the audience’s wish for an encore and we weren’t disappointed. Tarantella Piedigrotta by Luigi Ricci brought the evening to a joyful close.
In case you missed the recital, or are eager to see them again, London Mandolin Quartet has been booked to appear on July 20th at one of the twice-weekly lunchtime recitals held in St. Olave’s Church, Hart Street, near Tower Hill.“