UCSB Arts & Lectures will present Grammy-winning Mandolin Virtuoso Chris Thile in concert, 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 9. The virtual event is a part of UCSB Arts & Lectures’ Winter 2021 House Calls series.
Thile is a mandolin virtuoso, composer, vocalist, and MacArthur Fellow with a broad outlook that encompasses classical, rock, jazz, bluegrass and other musical genres. The SoCal native is a member of Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek, and hosted the acclaimed radio program “Live From Here.”
Through his wide-ranging output and collaborations with top musicians, Thile is creating a distinctly American canon and a new musical aesthetic. As a soloist, he has released several albums including his most recent, “Thanks for Listening,” a “modern masterpiece,” according to PopMatters.
Recent collaborations include “Not Our First Goat Rodeo” (2020) with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan and Edgar Meyer, the follow-up to their Grammy-winning project “The Goat Rodeo Sessions” with Edgar Meyer and Yo-Yo Ma in 2013.
A child prodigy, Thile first rose to fame as a member of Grammy Award-winning trio Nickel Creek, with whom he released four albums and sold some 2 million records. In 2014, along with a national tour, the trio released a new album, “A Dotted Line,” their first since 2005.
In September 2014, Thile and Meyer released the collaboration, “Bass + Mandolin,” which won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. Punch Brothers released “The Phosphorescent Blues” in January 2015 and a follow up EP, “The Wireless,” in November of the same year.
Tickets to Thile’s concert are $10 for the general public and free for UCSB students (registration required). For tickets and more information, call UCSB Arts & Lectures, 805-893-3535 or visit www.ArtsAndLectures.UCSB.edu.
Sponsors include: Major Sponsor: Marcia and John Mike Cohen; House Calls Media sponsors Noozhawk, Santa Barbara Independent, KCRW, Voice Magazine.