News Release

Back to Newsroom

---

Dec. 6, 2006

Contact: Jessica Moore, jkmoore@learnlink.emory.edu, 404-712-2300

Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile: Pushing Musical Limits at Emory, Jan. 27, 2007

Crossing traditional boundaries of style, world-renowned double-bassist Edgar Meyer and Nickel Creek’s celebrated mandolin player Chris Thile join forces for a program of original music at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts on January 27, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. Tickets ($48, $36 for discount category members, and $5 for Emory students) may be purchased by calling the Arts at Emory Box Office at 404-727-5050 or by visiting the website at www.arts.emory.edu.

This concert, part of the Flora Glenn Candler Concert Series at Emory University, is one of only twelve stops on Meyer and Thile’s tour of the United States. Their concert was described by the Los Angeles Times as, “a remarkably broad musical landscape that touched on the passion and forcefulness of rock, the spontaneity and symbiotic interplay of jazz and the unabashed emotion of folk music.” The concert features a brand new set of original repertoire for the double-bass and mandolin. The evening’s program will be announced from the stage. As Emory Coca-Cola Artists in Residence, Meyer and Thile will hold double-bass and mandolin masterclasses that will be open for public observation. The masterclasses will be followed by a question and answer session with the artists. Workshop details for the public will be available soon.

Grammy-winner Meyer is a composer, arranger and performer who shines in classical and bluegrass, a scope that earned him a “genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Hailed by the New Yorker as, “…the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of his instrument,” Meyer’s technique and musicianship have brought him to the fore, where he is appreciated by a vast, varied audience. He is the winner of numerous competitions and in 1994 became the only bassist to receive the Avery Fisher Career Grant, followed by the Avery Fisher Prize in 2000. Not only is he a prolific solo performer, he has also collaborated with artists ranging from the Emerson Quartet, Yo-Yo Ma and Wynton Marsalis to Garth Brooks, the Indigo Girls and James Taylor.

Mandolin dynamo Thile, a virtuoso at the age of twelve, now has three solo and two Nickel Creek albums, the most recent of which won a Grammy. Acclaimed as one of the most inventive musicians of his (or any other) generation, it is easy to see how his talent has taken him in many directions. He has worked with such notables as the Chieftains, Dixie Chicks and Hank Williams Jr. In 2001 he was awarded the International Bluegrass Music Association award for Mandolinist of the Year and is also featured in the documentary, Bluegrass Journey, with the rest of his band Nickel Creek. Of his playing the Roanoke Times said wrote: “Thile picks more notes out of his instrument than perhaps anyone who has ever played the bluegrass-associated mandolin.” He maintains an active touring schedule and is increasingly in-demand as a studio musician.

###

CALENDAR LISTING:

Edgar Meyer, double-bass, and Chris Thile, mandolin
Saturday, January 27, 2007 at 8:00 p.m.
Price: $48; Discount Category Members $36; Emory Students $5
Venue: Schwartz Center, Emerson Concert Hall
Crossing traditional boundaries of style, world-renowned double-bassist Edgar Meyer and Nickel Creek’s celebrated mandolin player Chris Thile join forces for a program of original music.

ARTS AT EMORY

Emory is home to a vibrant arts community and welcomes the public to more than 250 annual events featuring student, faculty and guest artists. More than 85 concerts are performed each year, ranging from presentations by internationally-acclaimed artists in the Flora Glenn Candler Concert Series and Emory Coca-Cola Artists-in-Residence Series to presentations by more than a dozen Emory music ensembles. The Schwartz Center for Performing Arts opened in February 2003 and houses the Dance Studio, Theater Laboratory and the 800-seat, state-of-the-art Cherry Logan Emerson Concert Hall.

The mission for the arts at Emory University is to provide a dynamic, multidisciplinary environment for the study, creation and presentation of the arts. For more information on the Schwartz Center or Arts at Emory events, visit www.arts.emory.edu and www.schwartzcenter.emory.edu, or call the Arts at Emory box office at 404-727-5050.

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: photographs available upon request.

###

---

Back to top