COYLE — With so many concerts and so many invitations to play, they started calling themselves “cello maniacs.”
And now four members of the group Cello Mania — two women, two girls — are coming out to the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center, 923 Hazel Point Road, for a Saturday afternoon interlude.
Admission is by donation to the 2 p.m. performance.
“We’re going to play the ‘Coldwater Canon,’ which is named after the Coldwater Canyon of Colorado. We have a few holiday pieces and a folk medley,” said Priscilla Jones, the cellist and teacher who speaks for Cello Mania.
Lovers of the cello
The group, composed of cello lovers from Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Bremerton and Seattle, appears in various lineups around the region. Cello Mania ensembles are different just about each time, Jones said.
Along with the music, Jones likes to offer insight, so she will give a short talk on “the magic lines” of the cello.
“I’ll attempt to show some of the secrets to finding the notes. We don’t have frets like on the guitar,” she said.
Joining Jones and her fellow grown-up cellist Barbara Deppe for this performance are Marit Ellerby, 11, and Abby Sullivan, 10.
Hearing this quartet version of Cello Mania is a singular experience, Jones said.
“We have a big range: We have the low end and we can go quite high,” she noted, “and we like to try out new music written for cello.”
There’s more of that these days, Jones believes, thanks to the popularity of cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
To learn more about the Laurel B. Johnson Community Center and its concert series, visit www.HazelPoint.info, phone booker Norm Johnson at 360-765-3449 or 206-459-6854, or email johnson5485@msn.com.
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
