Matt Flinner and Joe K. Walsh

Known for their mastery of tone and tasteful musical approach, this mandolin duo brings profound voices and diversity of texture to the acoustic and bluegrass worlds, with Matt Flinner on the banjo and mandolin and Joe Walsh switching between mandolin, mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello. Experience their artistry in an intimate evening of sublime music. 

Multi-instrumentalist Matt 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, Flinner 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, he 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 wide variety of bluegrass, new acoustic, classical and jazz artists, including Tim O’Brien, Frank Vignola, Steve Martin, Darrell Scott, the Modern Mandolin Quartet, Dave Douglas, Leftover Salmon, Alison Brown, The Ying Quartet, Tony Trischka, Darol Anger, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra. He has also recorded two Compass Records CDs and toured as part of Phillips, Grier and Flinner with bassist Todd Phillips and guitarist David Grier. His two solo CDs (also on Compass), “The View from Here” and “Latitude,” are now widely considered classics in the new acoustic/modern bluegrass style. His current group, the Matt Flinner Trio (with guitarist Ross Martin and bassist Eric Thorin), has forged new pathways in acoustic string band music with their two ground-breaking CDs, “Music du Jour” and “Winter Harvest”   

Hailed by David Grisman as a “wonderful mandolin player”, and by Darol Anger as “one of the best mandolinists I’ve ever played with”, Portland, Maine-based musician Joe K. Walsh is known for his exceptional tone and taste, and his years of collaborations and recordings with acoustic music luminaries including Darol Anger, Brittany Haas, Grant Gordy, Mike Block, Danny Barnes, Scott Nygaard, and pop-grass darlings Joy Kills Sorrow, a band he co-founded. He’s played with everyone from John Scofield to Molly Tuttle to Tony Trischka, and performed at festivals, club and theaters all over North America and Europe. After a number of award-winning years with bluegrass stars the Gibson Brothers, Joe currently splits his time between an inventive string band called Mr Sun (featuring Darol Anger, Grant Gordy and Aidan O’Donnell), the Mike Block Trio, a project with Celia Woodsmith, and a trio with Ella Jordan and Jed Wilson. His most recent record “If Not Now, Who?” was released in 2023 on Adhyaropa Records. An avid educator, Joe is an associate professor at the Berklee College of Music. He teaches regularly at music camps and workshops all over, and teaches online through Peghead Nation.   

Host or Publisher Concord Conservatory of Music