Jacob Jolliff

Jacob Jolliff is a mandolinist who appears with the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra performing Jessie Jones's Mandolin Concerto. Listeners familiar with his work in acoustic and bluegrass circles can hear him apply that same rhythmic precision and speed to a full orchestral setting, in a program that also includes music by Mozart, Husa, and Prokofiev.

In this program Jolliff is the soloist in Jessie Jones's Mandolin Concerto, a piece that places the mandolin's quick, plucked sound against the orchestra rather than a small acoustic group. Listeners can expect the mandolin's tremolo, a rapid back and forth strumming on a single note that lets the instrument sustain a melody, along with fast, cleanly articulated runs across the strings. The surrounding works give context: Mozart's overture to Don Giovanni opens the evening with dramatic contrasts, Karel Husa's Fantasies for Orchestra offers a modern, coloristic exploration of the orchestra, and Prokofiev's First Symphony closes with a bright, classically proportioned finale. Within that frame, the concerto centers the mandolin as a lead voice capable of both delicate filigree and rhythmic drive.