[1] Under the name Estudiantina Española Fígaro, members of the original group toured France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Holland and England.

[3] This group was founded by Dionisio Granados and toured Europe dancing and playing guitars, violins and the bandurria, which became confused with the mandolin.

[4][5][6] They performed in France, Germany, Russia, Italy, Holland and England..[1] The Spanish Students were brought to the United States by Henry Eugene Abbey in January 1880, performing with his Humpty Dumpty Pantomime Company.

[7] Among the imitators were a wave of Italian mandolinists who toured Europe in the 1880s and 1890s, and the United States by the mid-1880s, playing and teaching their instrument.

[11] An Italian musician, Carlo Curti, hastily started a musical ensemble after seeing them perform; his group of Italian-born Americans called themselves the "Original Spanish Students", anticipating that the American public could not tell the difference between the Spanish bandurrias and Italian mandolins.

[7][12] The imitators' use of mandolins helped to generate enormous public interest in an instrument that had been relatively unknown in the US.