Chris Thile. Photo by Josh Goleman
Asheville Amadeus: The Art of Storytelling wraps up a dynamic ten days of events on Saturday, May 10, with An Evening With Chris Thile. The performance will be held at 7 p.m. in the Thomas Wolfe Auditorium at Harrah’s Cherokee Center – Asheville, and features GRAMMY Award-winning mandolinist, singer and songwriter Thile performing new work as well as the third movement of Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto. Thile will be accompanied by the Asheville Symphony, the presenting organization along with community partners of the biennial Asheville Amadeus Festival.
Attendees will hear Thile’s new work, ATTENTION! A narrative song cycle for extroverted mandolinist and orchestra. Thile relates the story of wanting to create music for orchestra for many years and being encouraged by a friend, after which Thile began to have “aural visions” of mandolin, orchestra, singing and talking. “Further dreaming led to the conviction that there should be an actual story, not just loosely related vignettes,” he says. After seeking inspiration in plays, essays and short stories, he reverted to his own personal stories often shared with friends. “If you’ve ever had a couple rounds with me at a good cocktail bar, chances are I’ve trotted it out, and the thought of turning it into a piece of orchestral music got my inner ear cranking like never before,” he says. “It’s a ridiculous story, but it’s 100-percent true, and the more I’ve worked on the telling of it, the more aware I’ve become of what a profound impact the whole experience had on me as a person who loves to make things and show them to other people.”
Thile’s musical career includes a MacArthur Fellowship, hosting public radio’s Live From Here with Chris Thile (formerly known as A Prairie Home Companion) and helping to found the critically acclaimed string bands Punch Brothers and Nickel Creek.
To learn more, visit AshevilleAmadeus.org or AshevilleSymphony.org.
