PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music present mandolin duo Matt Flinner and Joe K. Walsh at Next Stage Saturday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. Known for their "mastery of the mandolin and tasteful musicality," said organizers in a news release, Flinner and Walsh "bring rich voices and diverse textures to the acoustic and bluegrass worlds."
Vermont-based multi-instrumentalist Flinner has made a career out of playing acoustic music in new ways. Starting out as a banjo prodigy who was playing bluegrass festivals before he entered his teens, he later took up the mandolin, won the National Banjo Contest at Winfield, Kansas, in 1990, and took the mandolin award there the following year. Since then, Flinner has become recognized as one of the premiere mandolinists as well as one of the finest new acoustic/roots music composers today.
He has toured and recorded with a variety of bluegrass, new acoustic, classical, and jazz artists, including Tim O'Brien, Frank Vignola, Steve Martin, and Darrell Scott. His two solo CDs on Compass Records, The View from Here and Latitude are widely considered classics in the new acoustic/modern bluegrass style.
Hailed by David Grisman as a "wonderful mandolin player," and by Darol Anger as "one of the finest mandolin players ever," Portland, Maine-based musician Walsh is best known for his collaborations and recordings with acoustic music luminaries including Anger, Brittany Haas, Molly Tuttle, and Sam Grisman, and pop-grass darlings Joy Kills Sorrow. He has performed at festivals, clubs, and theaters all over North America and Europe.
Walsh currently splits his time between string band Mr Sun (with Anger, Grant Gordy, and Aidan O'Donnell), the Mike Block Trio, duo Flinner, and a trio with Ella Jordan and Jed Wilson, moving from mandolin to mandola, octave mandolin, and mandocello.
An in-demand educator, Walsh is an associate professor at the Berklee College of Music, and teaches regularly at music camps and workshops across North America and Europe and online through Peghead Nation.
Next Stage is at 15 Kimball Hill in downtown Putney. Tickets are $22 in advance, $25 at the door, and $10 for access to the livestream. Advance tickets are available at nextstagearts.org. Next Stage will provide a beer, wine, and cocktail cash bar. For information, call 802-387-0102.
As part of Next Stage's 15th anniversary celebration, two of its founders, Eric Bass and Virginia Scholl, will be honored at this event.
This Arts item was submitted to The Commons.