CARNEGIE HALL PRESENTS
Punch Brothers
Featuring Chris Thile

Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 8:00 PM

Punch Brothers
·· Chris Eldridge, Guitar and Vocals
·· Paul Kowert, Bass and Vocals
·· Noam Pikelny, Banjo and Vocals
·· Chris Thile, Mandolin and Vocals
·· Gabe Witcher, Fiddle and Vocals

Program is approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes, and will be performed without intermission

Program Notes:

JEFF TAMARKIN ON THE
PUNCH BROTHERS

Their instrumentation—mandolin, fiddle, banjo, guitar, and bass—suggests classic bluegrass, but the sound generated by Punch Brothers is nothing Bill Monroe would have recognized. The quintet may be able to trace its roots to the front porches of Appalachia, and its respect for that tradition is evident, but Punch Brothers’ contemporary, progressive sound takes a giant leap from bluegrass’ foundations and lands somewhere else entirely.

Even compared to the stellar output of Nickel Creek (the hugely popular acoustic trio of which mandolinist Chris Thile was a core member until its 2006 dissolution), it becomes immediately apparent when listening to Punch Brothers’ 2008 debut album, Punch, that this is not a band bound by any preset rules. The recording’s centerpiece, the 40-minute The Blind Leaving the Blind, is a complex four-part suite that traverses numerous intricate sonic landscapes and builds lyrically upon the heartbreak and recovery stemming from Thile’s divorce.

If that all sounds rather high-concept, it is—deliberately. Punch Brothers founder Thile (who recorded his first solo album at age 13) has always been a restless musical seeker, and the others—guitarist Chris Eldridge, fiddler Gabe Witcher, banjoist Noam Pikelny, and bassist Paul Kowert—are on the same page. This is a very different project than Nickel Creek, with very different intent and very different material, says Thile. Punch Brothers have come a long way toward solidifying their collective identity.

For one thing, the group (all of whom also sing) is New York City–based, and so, says Thile, We’re not necessarily connecting with the human aspect of bluegrass music, like coal mining and little cabins on the hill. We’re profoundly impacted by the city and being around a lot of really great musicians and artists of all shapes and sizes. This is music made by New Yorkers for New Yorkers.

And how do these city-slicker pickers feel about their debut in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage? Thile says, I’ll be nervous as all hell, that’s for sure!


© 2009 The Carnegie Hall Corporation.

Jeff Tamarkin is a freelance music journalist.

More Information:

Choose your favorite music. Bluegrass? Classical? Alternative rock? The Punch Brothers—led by Chris Thile, one of the most imaginative musicians in America—are all these things and more. They play “stunning, dexterous pop Americana,” and can be “disarming, delicate … improbably beautiful … [and] deliriously cheesy” (Village Voice).

Punch Brothers
·· Chris Eldridge, Guitar and Vocals
·· Paul Kowert, Bass and Vocals
·· Noam Pikelny, Banjo and Vocals
·· Chris Thile, Mandolin and Vocals
·· Gabe Witcher, Fiddle and Vocals
PUNCH BROTHERS
Collecting five singular abilities and viewpoints into one musical force, Punch Brothers, featuring Chris Thile, have established their place among the most dynamic and talented presences across the full range of contemporary music making. As performing and recording artists, composers and interpreters, technicians and stylists, they continue to push the boundaries of possibility while maintaining an unerring devotion to the basic audience experience.

In the 2009–2010 season, the band visits a long list of venues that include Carnegie Hall, the Somerville Theater in Boston, Old Town School in Chicago, the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, UMS Ann Arbor, Duke University, the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and many others. They have recently performed in nearly every conceivable format and space, from small clubs to concert halls and festivals of all kinds. Their shows include an unpredictable mix of original songs written by the band; the four-movement chamber suite The Blind Leaving the Blind (composed by Thile); traditional bluegrass and folk tunes; arrangements of Bach and Mozart; and covers of Radiohead, The Beatles, The Band, The White Stripes, The Strokes, and countless others.

Punch Brothers first came together, though nameless at the time, for the making of the 2006 album How to Grow a Woman from the Ground, which earned them a Grammy nomination for the song “The Eleventh Reel,” and contains an eclectic mix of covers and original songs. Following that experience, the band began touring and eventually adopted the name Punch Brothers (from the Mark Twain story “Punch, Brothers, Punch!”) before releasing their second album, Punch, on Nonesuch in 2008. Punch comprises music written collectively by Punch Brothers alongside Thile’s The Blind Leaving the Blind, a 40-minute quintet that was premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, and performed across the US and UK. Their next album will be released on Nonesuch in spring 2010.

At home in a dizzying array of settings even outside of their expansive core activities, Punch Brothers are the subject of an upcoming feature-length documentary called How to Grow a Band, appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and were among three finalists in ESPN’s cutthroat, fan-voted battle of the bands in interpretations of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” The band members’ diverse backgrounds and extraordinary talents make the group impossible to describe and thrilling to experience.


CHRIS THILE
Chris Thile has changed the mandolin forever, elevating it from its origins as a relatively simple folk and bluegrass instrument to the sophistication and brilliance of the finest jazz improvisation and classical performance. During the 2009–2010 season, he premieres his Mandolin Concerto with six orchestras in the US.

For more than 15 years, Thile played in the wildly popular band Nickel Creek, with whom he released three albums and sold two million records, was awarded a Grammy in 2002, and traveled the world on sold-out concert tours. As a soloist, he has released four albums, as well as performing and recording extensively as a duo with double bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, and with fellow mandolinist Mike Marshall. He has written a duo for Meyer and pianist Emanuel Ax; recorded with Yo-Yo Ma, Renee Fleming, and Joshua Bell; and collaborated with a pantheon of bluegrass innovators, including Bela Fleck, Dolly Parton, the Dixie Chicks, Jerry Douglas, and Sam Bush.


CHRIS ELDRIDGE
Although initially drawn to the electric guitar, by his mid-teens Chris Eldridge had developed a deep love for acoustic music (thanks, in part, to his father—a banjo player and founding member of the seminal bluegrass group The Seldom Scene). Eldridge later gained in-depth exposure to a variety of different musical styles while studying at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he earned a degree in 2004. During his time at Oberlin, Eldridge studied with legendary guitarist Tony Rice. Before joining Punch Brothers, he was a founding member of the critically acclaimed bluegrass band The Infamous Stringdusters.


PAUL KOWERT
Paul Kowert is from Madison, Wisconsin, and graduated from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. As a classical musician, Paul has performed with various orchestras as a soloist and as a section member, most recently playing in the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. He was one of the performers at Edgar Meyer’s Carnegie Hall workshop in 2006, and has since appeared in concert with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings, Tristan and Tashina Clarridge, Alex and Tatiana Hargreaves, Futureman’s Black Mozart Ensemble, Jordan Tice, Brittany Haas, and Jeremy Kittel. Kowert can be heard as a member of the Big Trio with mandolinist Mike Marshall and violinist Alex Hargreaves, a group that released its first album in spring 2009.


NOAM PIKELNY
Noam Pikelny hails from Chicago, where he picked up the banjo at the age of 8. He studied old-time and bluegrass banjo at the Old Town School of Folk Music. Throughout high school, he played all over Illinois and Indiana with several traditional bluegrass bands. Pikelny studied music theory at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. In 2002, he became the principal banjoist with the award-winning Colorado ensemble Leftover Salmon. His debut solo record, In the Maze, was released on Compass Records, and made a splash in the world of postmodern progressive three-finger style five-string banjo. He relocated to Nashville in 2006 to play with New Grass Revival bassist and vocalist John Cowan. He started performing and recording with mandolinist, fellow Cubs fan, spiritual advisor, and life coach Chris Thile in the fall of 2005. Pikelny relocated to Brooklyn in spring f 2008.


GABE WITCHER
Gabe Witcher began his musical training at age five, learning classical violin and bluegrass fiddle simultaneously. By age six, he was performing professionally with his father in the bluegrass band The Witcher Brothers; over the next decade, he gained renown as both a member of that group and as a multiple winner on the California competition circuit. In 1994, Witcher was recruited by veteran musician Herb Pedersen to fill the shoes of three-time national fiddle champion Byron Berline in the group The Laurel Canyon Ramblers. By age 17, Witcher was recording for heavyweights such as Randy Newman, Bernie Taupin, and producer Don Was. He has since contributed to more than 300 records, and to countless movie and television scores, including the 2006 Oscar winner Brokeback Mountain. Over the last five years, Witcher has solidified his place at the forefront of the progressive acoustic music scene by playing with 12-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas.