Chris Thile to perform at Mayo PAC Nov. 22
For his upcoming concerts, mandolin player and vocalist Chris Thile is planning to mix his original compositions with a couple of Bach sonatas and a few traditional bluegrass numbers.
The combination of Bach and bluegrass may seem atypical for many musicians, but not for Thile.
“I feel like it’s all just music,” says the Grammy-winning artist. “When you boil things down to their essence, you’d be surprised how similar they all are. The form is just a suit of clothes the music is wearing, not the beating heart of it.”
Thile will bring his eclectic approach to the Mayo Performing Arts Center this Sunday.
Appropriately for a musician with a broad-minded attitude toward music, Thile has numerous projects underway. He has a thriving solo career, in addition to being an ongoing member of the bands Nickel Creek and the Punch Brothers.
He is also gearing up to assume the role of host of the long-running National Public Radio program “A Prairie Home Companion.” Thile was hand-picked by the current host and creator of the show, Garrison Keillor, to follow him in early 2016.
The prospect of taking over “A Prairie Home Companion” leaves Thile (who has appeared on the show as both performer and guest host) exhilarated.
“Garrison is a truly brilliant person,” Thile says. “He’s given us the world of the show. It’s a tangible, explorable place. It’s invaluable, and it needs to go on. Now that Garrison is ready to step aside, I’m honored to keep it going.”
Thile says he has known he needed to be a performer as a boy. A native of Oceanside, California, he recalls his parents often taking him to a That Pizza Place in Carlsbad. The restaurant would regularly feature a live mandolin player.
“I heard the mandolin, and I was drawn like a moth to the flame,” he says. “I knew I had to get my hands on a mandolin.”
Thile met siblings Sean and Sara Watkins, who shared his affection for acoustic music. They were barely in their teens when they started performing as the Nickel Creek Band, which was shortened to Nickel Creek before releasing an independent album.
“It was just something we formed,” Thile says. “We started playing acoustic festivals in southern California.”
Their debut caught the ear of Alison Krauss, who produced Nickel Creek’s first CD for Sugar Hill in 1998. That award-winning album benefitted from a boom in acoustic music in the wake of the soundtrack of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”
Though the group temporarily disbanded around 2007, the three members have since decided to reunite periodically.
“It’s now one of the irons in the fire,” Thile says.
Another iron is the Punch Brothers, a group that Thile formed to play a hybrid of country and bluegrass with a classical approach. Their music has been likened to “country chamber music.”
“It was my first choice after deciding to put Nickel Creek on the backburner,” Thile says. “From the first time we rehearsed, it was electric in the room. There’s still that joy when we play together.”
On his own, Thile has released Grammy-winning collaborations with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer. He has also won awards from the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA).
One honor he was not expecting came in 2012, when he was named a recipient of a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship Grant (unofficially known as a “genius grant”).
“What a pleasant surprise that was,” Thile says. “It’s stoked the fire. I burn to end the day feeling that I know a little more than when I started the day.”
However, though the grant comes with no strings or specific stipulations for use of the funds, Thile does feel that the grant carries an obligation. “It’s almost an indictment to go out and do good work,” he says. “That’s what I’m trying to do.”
CHRIS THILE
WHEN: 8 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Mayo Performing Arts Center,
100 South St., Morristown
TICKETS: $29 to $59
INFO: 973-539-8008 or www.mayoarts.org