Established since 1969 in Auckland, New Zealand
Six Mandolinata players joined forty other Australian FAME members to play in Bamberg, Bavaria, as the Australasian Mandolin Orchestra.
Every four years the lovely medieval city of Bamberg has hosted a Folk Festival for plucked instrument players. There were 82 groups there, mostly mandolin and guitar orchestras like ours, and they came from all over the world. 1200 of us took part, each group playing for twenty minutes in one of the two splendid concert halls.
The tour had been organised by our conductor Robert Schulz from Perth. He had also been invited by local orchestras in five other venues to share a concert with them.
From our Youth Hostel in Darmstadt we were hosted in Dudenhofen and Konigstein. We were told that within 40 kilometres of Darmstadt there are 6 mandolin orchestras!
Photo courtesy by Daniel Silver, 2006
In North Germany, Julich, we played in Haus Overbach, a residential music college, and in Holland we stayed in a former convent and travelled to give concerts in Breda and Stolwijk.
The next festival, in four years, may be held in North Germany.
