The San Francisco Mandolin Orchestra has grown rapidly in the last five years to become of the country’s finest mandolin orchestras. From its humble beginnings in 2005 as the Noe Valley Plucked String Orchestra, SFMO was originally comprised of mandolin students of Nicola Swinburne, who then conducted the orchestra.  In 2009, Nicola handed the baton to Achille Bocus, who had been conductor of the Orchestra a Plettro, Città di Milano, one of Italy’s largest and oldest mandolin orchestras. Nicola Swinburne Bocus now manages the orchestra. Sarah Bell, formerly from the Providence Mandolin Orchestra, is our Concert Master.

In 2010 SFMO has 20-25 regular players playing instruments of the mandolin family: mandolin, mandola, octave mandolin, and mandocello, in addition to guitar, double bass and harp. Our repertoire changes seasonally and is centered on one particular theme, and our seasons last 6 to 8 months. We love to explore music from different countries and time periods.

Our philosophy is to put our hearts and souls into the expression of our music after dedicating time and much effort into the fine detail. As we were originally a teaching orchestra, the philosophy of continual learning and improving, still pervades the orchestra. Most of our players have studied classical music and classical mandolin technique for several years before joining the orchestra. We are proud to include some very fine players but know that the greatest strength is in our ability to produce one coherent statement of our music which is much greater than the sum of us all individually.

The orchestra has played at some of the best-known local concert venues, including the Capp Street Community Music Center, the Randall Museum, Noe Valley Ministry and Old First Church in San Francisco. The orchestra presented a workshop as part of the San Francisco Folk Festival in June 2006 and in April 2008 played in the San Francisco Mandolin Festival. Past soloists include soprano Marta Johansen, accordionist Sheri Mignano, and lutenist Alex Jenne. Guest conductors include Olga Mandrigina and Martha Rodriguez-Salazar. We're always interested in exploring new opportunities for musical collaboration; if you would like to perform with us or compose for us, please contact Nicola Bocus.