For anyone who has ever felt a twinge of envy for a brilliant artist like Chris Thile, rest assured: You are an essential collaborator in his creation.
“It’s why playing live is so important,” the Grammy-winning mandolinist and composer told the News&Guide. “We give this thing, give it to you, and you finish it with us, for us … people finishing it by making their interpretation.”
The crowd at Walk Festival Hall will have a chance to collaborate with Thile on Thursday, when he will give a solo performance for the final “Gateway Series” concert of the 2023 season of the Grand Teton Music Festival.
Thile has performed in the valley before. He has played at the Center Theater with Nickel Creek — the acoustic trio he formed with Sarah and Sean Watkins in 1989, when he was 8 years old — the progressive bluegrass quintet the Punch Brothers, and as a solo musician.
…The opportunity for improvisation multiplies in a solo setting, too.
“I make myself a mirror: ‘Here’s what I think you all sound like tonight.’ It’s a fun game. I bring specific things to the table, and everyone else brings things to table. There’s a finite collection of things I’m going to draw from, but there are infinite possibilities. I’m not just going to play those things note for note … even in a fully composed passage, I might look out into the crowd and shape it.
…“That’s the kind of thing I’m looking forward to doing in Jackson Hole.”
