Chris Thile

IMN representation: Europe

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Widely regarded as one of the most interesting and inventive musicians and composers of his generation, Chris Thile has changed the mandolin forever. He excels not only in the instrument’s Baroque origins and its Bluegrass, Folk and Country stylings, but also uses his virtuosity to bring a new voice to Jazz, Contemporary Music and even Rock arrangements. Maybe it is because he jumps between and within so many genres that Thile is averse to the use of such labels: “It doesn’t matter if it is Bach, Bob Dylan, an old Appalachian fiddle tune or Radiohead; it is about the composition created with a similar quality and standard of skill. Dylan didn’t write ‘Folk’ and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys did not write ‘Rock.’ I want to play ‘Good’ music.”

Over the course of his career, Thile has received every major mandolin-related award, starting with the National Mandolin Championship at age 12. He is a Grammy® Award winner, including the Best Contemporary Folk Album award for the This Side with Nickel Creek, the winner of the 2007 BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Musician of the Year, and was recently named a 2012 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow.

Punch Brothers, his current project, is an international sensation that continues to garner praise for their adventurous and complex, yet thoughtful and personal, performances. In addition to his own bands, Chris has also recorded and toured extensively with bassist Edgar Meyer and as a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Goat Rodeo Sessions, all while working a myriad of side projects with the likes of Bela Fleck and Brad Mehldau, among others.

Having performed and recorded various Bach pieces throughout his career, the logical progression for a musician with this mastery of his instrument is to tackle Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, the archetypal series for solo violin, on the mandolin. Bach will be the subject of a Nonesuch Records release scheduled for the spring of 2013.

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MacArthur Foundation: Genius Award
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REVIEWS

Through his adventurous, multifaceted artistry as both a composer and performer with various ensembles, Thile is creating a distinctly American canon for the mandolin and a new musical aesthetic for performers and audiences alike.
MacArthur Foundation

Thile, the genre-averse mandolinist and composer, is indisputably brilliant. A world master of his principal instrument, Thile has a seemingly inexhaustible creative imagination.
New Republic

Mandolin god Chris Thile – former and current leader of Nickel Creek and the Punch Brothers, respectively – is generally known for kicking bluegrass forward.
Rolling Stone

Chris Thile […] can play like a man possessed, while leaving would-be pigeonholers reeling in his slipstream.
The Scotsman

Chris Thile is the most remarkable mandolinist in the world.
Independent on Sunday