Mandolin virtuoso Chris Thile—who, with his fellow Punch Brothers, performed at the unforgettable benefit concert Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of “Inside Llewyn Davis,” inspired by music from the upcoming Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis, in New York City on Sunday—kicks off a solo tour performing music from his new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, at Meany Hall for the Performing Arts in Seattle tonight. The tour makes its way across the US West, down South, and into the Midwest before heading to the Northeast for stops including a sold-out New York City show in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Thile heads to Europe in November. See below for all of the currently scheduled solo shows; for additional details and tickets, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

The new album, Bach: Sonatas and Partitas, Vol. 1, produced by Thile’s friend, mentor, and frequent collaborator, the double bassist and composer Edgar Meyer, comprises Bach works written for solo violin. It is available on iTunes and in the Nonesuch Store, where CD and vinyl orders included a download of the complete album at checkout.

"There's the mandolin and then there's the mandolin when Chris Thile puts it to work," says NPR. "Chris Thile is stretching the limits of his instrument yet again, this time taking on Bach."

Thile explains his connection to the composer: “Bach was my first meaningful experience with—for lack of a better word—classical music. It was the second recording of Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations. Gould plays with the kind of rhythmic integrity that I had previously only associated with non-classical music: music with a groove, with a pocket, that made you move. Gould was playing that music like my heroes play fiddle tunes. It humanized the whole thing for me and the heavens opened up and Bach came down. I started devouring all the Bach I could get my hands on.”

He continues, “This record to me is not about this iconic violin music played on the mandolin—like, ‘Oh boy, what fun, he’s playing a weird instrument!’ It's about Bach being one of the greatest musicians of all time, the solo violin music being some of his best work, and the mandolin having the potential to cast it in a new and hopefully interesting light."

CHRIS THILE ON TOUR

* w/ Michael Daves
**w/ Mike Marshall