Chris Thile (Solo)

Chris Thile | mandolin, vocals

When he released his first album in 1994, he was 13, a mandolin prodigy, a rising bluegrass star. But this style of country and western music is only but one of many genres in which Chris Thile, born in Oceanside, California, has set new standards.

In 2006, he founded the band Punch Brothers, with which he “took bluegrass to its next evolutionary stage,” as the Washington Post raved, “drawing equal inspiration from the brain and the heart.”

In the US, he became a nationwide celebrity when he hosted the radio show “Live from Here” (formerly the legendary “Prairie Home Companion”) for four years, a platform where musicians, with the likes of Paul Simon, presented their new songs. Thile stands out as a bandleader and soloist, particularly for his own songs with their imaginative and sophisticated lyrics, but also for his extraordinary cover versions ranging from Bach to Nirvana and Radiohead.

Speaking of Bach: Thile has arranged his solo pieces for violin for mandolin in a most artistic, brilliant, and convincing form. In his solo concerts, Bach’s dance-like, supremely virtuosic polyphonic music serves as a springboard for excursions into his own song repertoire.

Thile owns several mandolins from the 1920s, teaches master classes like “Chris Thile’s Acousticamp,” and is more than ready when people like Brad Mehldau or Yo-Yo Ma call and ask him to play in a duo.