Credit for starting America’s interest in mandolin music is rightly given to the Figaro Spanish Students, a string ensemble that arrived in the United States on 2 January 1880.
The Students’ first American concert tour ended in December 1880. No evidence has yet been found to suggest that they performed in Wisconsin during that first visit. With mostly different personnel, the Figaro Spanish Students returned to the US in August 1882. Their second tour brought them to smaller Wisconsin towns in January of 1883 and to Milwaukee in 1884.
1884, the second Spanish Students tour stopped in Milwaukee, WIIn the early 1890s, S.P Fachutar led Wisconsin into the American mandolin craze
Polk’s Wisconsin State Gazeteer – 1895 – page 636The Bonne Amie Musical Circle (Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra) c. 1904 – Director Otto Strey standing to the left. Note the LARGE guitar on the right
Envy F - The New Vintage Frets 