You’ll find a short 1-paragraph bio by clicking the “Marilynn” menu heading.
Marilynn Mair has shown the world what the mandolin can achieve in the hands of a skillful artist. Internationally praised for her beautiful tone, versatile technique, and impeccable choice of repertoire, over the course of the past four decades she has established classical mandolin as a valued instrument in chamber music circles worldwide. More recently she has ventured into other genres of music as well, playing choro in Rio, jazz at Berklee, avant garde premieres in Europe and Japan, and writing her own compositions. Marilynn is a mandolinist, it’s how she enters the world, and through her concerts, recordings, compositions, and books, she has created a potent legacy for generations of players and audiences to come.
Marilynn performs internationally, appearing at Carnegie Hall, the White House, the Newport Music Festival, Lincoln Center, Sala Cecelia Mirelles, the Palacio de Cristal, Tivoli Concert Hall, the Palffy Palace, Schloss Eggersberg, the Kennedy Center, the Banff Centre for the Arts, and hundreds of other venues. She has represented the United States at international music festivals in Italy, France, Spain, England, Austria, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Brazil, and Japan. As a performer, she has inspired, recorded, and performed significant new works for mandolin, by composers that include Ernst Krenek, Guido Santorsola, Evan Ziporyn, Daniel Pinkham, Ann Carr Boyd, Sigfried Behrend, David Jaffe, Will Ayton, Luiz Simas, Robert N. Martel, Adam Larrabee, and others.
Over the course of her career Marilynn has released two dozen highly acclaimed solo and ensemble CDs, and appeared on numerous compilations. Although best known as a performer and recording artist, Marilynn is also held in high regard as a teacher and scholar. In 2007 she published a 224-page method book, The Complete Mandolinist, that has received international acclaim from teachers and students alike. She has researched Brazilian choro music extensively, and her articles on its history and music have been called the most complete choro resource available in English. Her bilingual choro method book, written with Rio-based bandolimist and professor Paulo Sá, was published in 2010, and “The 100 – Techniques & Exercises for Mandolinists,” was published in 2017.
Marilynn performs in a number of duos, partnering with Brazilian pianist Luiz Simas, classical pianist Nancy Nicholson, guitarist/composer Robert N. Martel, viola-da-gambist/composer Will Ayton. and others. She has also worked with a broad spectrum of musicians, from the Deutsche Zupforchester and Musica Festiva Lincopensis, to Vinicius Dorin, Arismar do Espirito Santo, Paulo Sá, Radim Zenkl, Barry Mitterhof, Rudy Cipolla, Eddie “The Chief” Clearwater, and Duke Robbilard. Marilynn is co-founder and director of Enigmatica, a mandolin octet specializing in Baroque, Brazilian, and contemporary music, that has released three CDs in its 18-year history. For the past decade she has performed and recorded in Brazil with several musicians including Água no Feijão, a Rio-based choro band.
Marilynn founded, and has directed the American Mandolin & Guitar Summer School since 1986. One of the first classical mandolin summer camps in the world, AMGuSS inspired the inception of the Classical Mandolin Society of America. She has also taught at the classical-music summer workshop, SummerKeys, for the past decade. Marilynn began her mandolin studies with Hibbard Perry in Providence, Rhode Island, and continued them in Vienna with Professor Vincenz Hladky of the Vienna Conservatory. She has also studied in Germany with Takashi Ochi and Sigfried Behrend, in England with Hugo d’Alton and Jack Duarte, in Rio with Joel Nascimento, and with Cuban guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer, who called her the “angel of the tremolo.”
Marilynn is available for concerts, workshops, and other events. Please inquire here!
