LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Chris Thile has been creating music with this mandolin – since he was just five years old.
Now the prolific musician will accompany The Louisville Orchestra in their season opener titled: “Our Kentucky Home.”
“For the orchestra and me to work on this new piece of music, you know it’s not about drudging up music from a bygone era and trying to make it new again. It’s about making new music together, in a place — Kentucky — that has excelled at producing new music over the ages,” Thile said.
Thile began playing the mandolin as part of the group Nickel Creek in Southern California, a place not known as a hotbed for bluegrass music. But that changed when he moved to Murray, Kentucky, with his family during his youth.
“I stood out in Southern California, being the only bluegrass mandolin player. I didn’t stand out too much when I moved to Kentucky. So I realized, if the goal is to make an unique contribution to this medium that I’m so in love with, then I need to open up my ears, start figure out what’s hanging out in here inherently, that I can add to the conversation with,” Thile explained.
One of the ways he’s adding to the conversation is through his unique way of storytelling, an art that will be showcased with The Louisville Orchestra.
He will share with the audience his encounter with Carrie Fisher.
Thile tells this encounter through playing the mandolin, singing and speaking.
“To do that with an orchestra in a concert hall environment is so fun. It’s so fun for me!” Thile exclaimed.
“The disconnect between the story and the context of the storytelling — that I think it creates this delicious tension and helps me make the various points I’m trying to make over the course of the story,” Thile added.
This unique way of transporting an audience through the power of music is something Concertmaster Gabriel Lefkowitz says he hopes will empower younger generations to appreciate orchestrated music.
“It’s important not to feel that kind of separation between time eras between the music of today and the music of yester-year. I think by presenting ‘classical music’ and collaborations with equal excitement and seriousness — that’s what makes it all relevant to audiences today.”
And for Thile, performing with the orchestra is allowing him to become part of something greater than himself.
“It’s an absolute testament to the ingenuity of humankind. The sound of all these human beings working together to make a piece of music, one piece of music,” Thile shared.