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Chris Thile Looks Back To Bach : Deceptive Cadence Thile was a prodigy with Nickel Creek at age 8, a founding member and lead vocalist of the Punch Brothers, has won multiple Grammys and is a MacArthur fellow. Now he's taking on the music of Bach for a new album, Sonatas and Partitas.

Deceptive Cadence

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Chris Thile Looks Back To Bach

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Chris Thile Looks Back To Bach

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Chris Thile's new album, Sonatas and Partitas, draws from material written by Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 1700s. Brantley Gutierrez /Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Brantley Gutierrez /Courtesy of the artist

Chris Thile's new album, Sonatas and Partitas, draws from material written by Johann Sebastian Bach in the early 1700s.

Brantley Gutierrez /Courtesy of the artist

There's the mandolin — and then there's the mandolin when Chris Thile puts it to work. He started playing with the band Nickel Creek when he was just 8, and recorded his debut solo album at 12. In his early 20s, he pushed the mandolin to new places as a member of Punch Brothers.

Today, Thile is stretching the limits of his instrument yet again — this time taking on Johann Sebastian Bach. He's just released an album of solo mandolin performances called Sonatas and Partitas, drawing source material written by Bach in the early 1700s. Thile spoke about it with NPR's Rachel Martin; click the audio link to hear their conversation.

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Deceptive Cadence

From NPR Classical