At 28, Chris Thile has already had a long and storied career. At the tender age of nine, Thile served as mandolinist and vocalist for now-defunct progressive acoustic three-piece outfit Nickel Creek. His 18-year stint with the trio brought forth such highlights as a Grammy award for the band’s opus, “This Side,” and a 2007 Coachella gig. Now, Thile leads the acclaimed experimental group, Punch Brothers.
Yet Thile’s prior accomplishments and current status in bluegrass have little bearing on his “Mandolin Concerto (Ad astra per alas porci),” a three-part classical piece that Thile himself composed.
On Sunday at Royce Hall, Thile, accompanied by the esteemed Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, will anchor a night of classical music with his piece’s California debut. As part of LACO’s Orchestral Series, Thile’s virtuosic piece will be the focal point of a night that also celebrates the early works of American contemporary composer Aaron Copland.
“It’s totally different from his bluegrass music,” said Jeffrey Kahane, LACO music director. “It is hard to describe; it’s really a combination of a lot of different music. In the Mandolin Concerto, he’s really not using bluegrass influences at all. There are many different influences in there ““ some jazz influences, … and it’s very much his own unique voice. It’s just really hard to describe because it doesn’t fall into any kind of one category.”
However, despite the general lack of a bluegrass glaze on this particular work, Thile’s name alone is likely to draw a crossover crowd. Kahane, who directed Thile’s concerto premiere with the Colorado Symphony last year, welcomes the fact that Thile’s dual citizenship in the realms of bluegrass and classical music may entice a rather foreign audience to trek across the classical border.
“(He) definitely does bring in people who have not necessarily gone to classical concerts before,” Kahane said. “And they have a completely different idea of what a classical concert is like. We didn’t specifically intend for that to happen. I guess you could say it is a nice fringe benefit in this case, as we are definitely bringing in people who may know people who know Chris from outside of classical music, or they may be interested in something new and different.”
Yet the overriding purpose of the concert cannot be boiled down to a purely didactic endeavor. The world-renowned Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, featuring 40 virtuosos, seeks to bring a variety of classical music to Los Angeles.
“We wanted to explore many, many voices,” said LACO executive director Andrea Laguni. “The repertoire for orchestra in general is quite a large and universal repertoire, … so we are attempting to represent many themes of classical repertoire for orchestra and these new voices are an opportunity for us to do so.”
In that regard, Thile and concert opener Nico Muhly, also 28, are seamless fits for the LACO performance. The up-and-coming virtuosos flank two pieces by Copland, juxtaposing the early works of an American legend with two of classical music’s rising stars.
“I definitely wanted the whole program to speak of the theme of American music. (Muhly and Thile) share a tremendous interest in all types of music, and the ability to bring all of that knowledge into a composition makes it very hard to put them into a category,” Kahane said. “And Copland, here is a guy who was a very important figure in the history of American music. … I thought it would be interesting to show what he wrote when he was in his 20s side by side with music that is written now by composers in their 20s.”
Yet some, like Buzz Gravelle, an alumnus who graduated with a doctorate in music, view Thile not only as a great composer but a beacon of hope for the underappreciated mandolin.
“I think he’s in a unique situation. The mandolin has been around for hundreds of years, but it’s still considered by most people to be a sideline instrument ““ almost a curiosity,” Gravelle said. “What it needs is a great popularizer. Chris Thile, being such a high-profile performer, is in the position to fill those shoes.”
For Gravelle, Thile has all the requisite skills and stature to be such a figure. “It’s very easy to rest on your laurels and just keep on doing what you’ve been doing. But he continually moves forward, striving, seeking out more-challenging music,” Gravelle said.
“He has got the skill, he has got the popularity, and he has got the restless artistic nature to keep pushing the mandolin in directions and bring it to places it’s not usually associated with.”