There’s a new musical gem in town. A newly formed group, The Pandini Brothers, are a plucked string quartet specializing in Italian and Pan-Mediterranean music, performed on classical mandolin, mandola, classical guitar, and bass. Their repertoire includes traditional Northern and Southern Italian tarantella, mazurka, and polka, Neapolitan song from the 1890’s, light opera (“Verdi’s greatest hits”), and Italian-American kitsch, such as the song from the spaghetti-slurping scene in Disney’s The Lady and the Tramp.

The Pandini Brothers also perform music from Italy’s closest neighbors, including waltz musette and café music from France, and dance music from the Greek Islands.

The group is composed of three Yellow Springs residents and a friend they met in the the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra, which made Yellow Springs its home for many years. Ironically, none of them has any family connection to the Pandini name. The name honors the Italian luthier Gabriele Pandini of Ferrara, who made the mandolin and mandola featured in this group. The mandola is a viola-sized carbon copy of the mandolin. Hence “The Pandini Brothers.”

You can catch their next performance at Dino’s Cappuccinos (225 Xenia Ave.) from 7 to 9 PM on Monday, August 14th, which has been designated “Mazurka Monday.” Audience members are invited to come get your mazurka on and to be a part of The Pandini Brother’s whimsical “Global Mandolinization Initiative” as they put the “Fun” in Funiculi-Funicula.

For a glimpse of photos and videos, visit @PandiniBros on Facebook. You can also hear sound samples on their YouTube channel. Queries can be sent to PandiniBros@gmail.com

The community can look forward to hearing more from this novel group, as their mission to mandolinize the world unfolds, one tarantella at a time.