Across the American Grain

MacArthur Fellows Tomeka Reid and Chris Thile are visionaries who have each reshaped the landscape of American music — Reid as a Chicago-based cellist and composer moving fluidly between classical training, tuneful chamber-jazz and open-form expression, and Thile as a mandolinist and cross-genre composer alchemizing bluegrass, Bach, and contemporary composition. Both artists operate as musical archivists, unearthing historical techniques and recontextualizing them within modern frameworks, making them an ideal pairing to explore how the past informs the present. Moderated by Nate Chinen, this dynamic conversation will invite audiences to understand genre not as a rigid category, but as a living, evolving organism — and to witness how two artists rooted in distinct American traditions have spent their careers dismantling boundaries.

“Supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as part of Defying Boundaries: MacArthur Fellows at 45. More information at macfound.org.“