Chris Thile: Field Recordings x Aspen Ideas Festival

Chris Thile: Field Recordings x Aspen Ideas Festival with tags npr, npr music, national public radio, live, performance, tiny desk, tiny desk concert, tony desk, tiny concert

Suraya Mohamed | September 4, 2024

Footpaths and a man-made stream bisect Anderson Park, an open grassy area in the middle of the Aspen Ideas Festival campus. An 800-pole bamboo sculpture was under construction nearby where Nickel Creek’s Chris Thile, violinist Sofia Hashemi-Asasi, and students from the Aspen Music School were setting up for this performance.

Thile was excited as he coached the group through a rehearsal of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043, 3rd Movement. Soon, an audience gathered on the hill to watch the concert and we were finally ready to begin. The long grass rustled close to our microphones and added a texture of tranquility to this joyful performance.

Afterward, Thile played two of his own compositions, “Dionysus” and “Ecclesiastes 2:24.” Before his paean to the god of wine-making, he said “So I think this is undeniably a nice place, right here, part of the natural world that we get so little of these days and it brings to mind wine for me, because I feel like that's one of the most successful collaborations humankind has had with the natural world.”

Before wrapping things up, Thile got emotional. “It’s good for a person to eat and drink and take pleasure in their work, and I don't know when I’ve made music with people who were taking more pleasure in their work, than these extraordinary young musicians I just got to play the third movement of the Bach double with,” Thile said. “I feel very very lucky in the moment.”

SET LIST

Bach: Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043, 3rd Movement

“Dionysus”

“Ecclesiastes 2:24”

MUSICIANS

Chris Thile: mandolin, vocals

Sofia Hashemi-Asasi: violin soloist

Madelyne Garnot: violin

John Lee: violin

Martha Mulcahy: viola

Ha eun Song: cello

Chad Rogers: double bass

NPR TEAM

Director: Mito Habe-Evans

Editor: Alanté Serene

Videographers: Tsering Bista, Mito Habe-Evans

Audio Engineer: Josh Newell

Post-Production Coordinator: Tsering Bista

Supervising Editor: Becky Lettenberger

Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed

VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

ASPEN IDEAS TEAM

Senior Producer: Ava Hartmann

Videographers: Ryan Lohr, Will Sardinsky

Audio Engineer: Michael Milota

Audio Services Director: Matt Windholz

Festival Director: Graham Veysey

#nprmusic #fieldrecordings #christhile