To say Brian Oberlin is smitten with the mandolin is an extreme understatement. The award-winning performer plays baroque, romantic, swing, bluegrass, contemporary, classical, Cajun and folk music, all on the mandolin.
A Michigan native, Oberlin has brought his eclectic style across the U.S., Italy, Germany, Holland and Poland. He comes to Grayslake March 20 to strum and pick his mandolin and sing a repertoire of music from five centuries. It will be his first time performing for the Lake County Folk Club, which features monthly concerts at the Grayslake Heritage Center and Grayslake Village Hall.
Already playing other instruments as a youngster, Oberlin recalled the first time he heard a mandolin. He was listening to a country band, Diamond Rio. “I heard this sound, a tinkling sound like rain falling,” he said. He looked on the album label to discover it was a mandolin, an instrument he didn’t recognize.
But he loved the sound. “The tone is as clear as a bell,” he said. The mandolin also can produce a unique “tremolo” that can’t be duplicated by another string instrument, he said.
“And it’s versatile,” he said. “You can play jazz, swing. You can play classical Italian. You can play single note lines. You can play chords. You can play bluegrass.”
He also loves that playing mandolin is somewhat unusual.
“There are thousands of guitar players out there,” he said, but not nearly as many mandolin players.
Oberlin practices daily, and when he was in his 20s would fall asleep while practicing and wake up to find the mandolin in his bed.
To be a great mandolin player, he said, “You have to live it, put on your sunglasses and just own it.
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“The mandolin and guitar are both grandchildren of the lute,” Oberlin said. The mandolin hit the Italian mainstream in the baroque era. Well-known composer Antonio Vivaldi wrote many concertos including several for mandolin, although Oberlin acknowledges Vivaldi wrote hundreds more for other instruments including at least 50 for the bassoon.
The mandolin got its contemporary calling as a parlor instrument that was small and inexpensive and easy to carry around. It was fairly easy to play, Oberlin said. Still, composers including Raffaele Calace composed virtuosic music for the mandolin in the late 1800s, which requires some fast fingers and well-honed technique.
Immigrants brought the mandolin to the United States in the early 1900s, where it became associated with bluegrass music. That’s why Americans often pigeonhole the mandolin as a folk instrument, Oberlin said. “I’m OK with that,” he said. “But I want to do other things with it, too, because it has a history.”
So, he plays Italian classical mandolin pieces written hundreds of years ago and swing and cowboy tunes from the 1900s as well as new pieces he writes or arranges.
One piece he’ll perform in Grayslake was written circa 1890 by Enrico Marucelli called “Valtzer Fantastico.”
“When I first learned it, I felt I had known it my whole life,” Oberlin said. “It was weird. I feel like I’ve heard these melodies since I was a kid.” Oberlin arranged the piece written for mandolin and piano for solo mandolin.
It’s a fan favorite, he said. “It takes the listener on a journey. It’s more like a suite. It has all these different melodic ideas that are really cool.”
He’ll also perform some original tunes while singing, and introduce some new pieces.
“I’m on a path of learning some new material from the late romantic era and contemporary composers like Stravinsky,” he said. Stravinsky wrote “Pulcinella,” for orchestra and later for violin and piano. Oberlin arranged it for solo mandolin.
“I feel like I’m paying homage to one of the greatest composers,” Oberlin said. “His harmonies are unique. That’s why I like him so much.”
To continue his growth as a mandolinist who doesn’t just play bluegrass music, Oberlin sets aside time daily to listen to various music and consider ways to apply it to the instrument he loves.
Brian Oberlin
When: 7 p.m. March 20
Where: Grayslake Village Hall, 10 Seymour Ave.
Tickets: $13-$18
Information: 847-602-8882, thelakecountyfolkclub.org
Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.