MANDOLIN
I first played mandolin as a teenager, learning on my grandfather’s instrument, which I discovered in my grandmother’s attic. He died when my father was only four years old, so the mandolin became a tangible connection to a family history I never had the chance to know firsthand. It was an old bowl-back mandolin from the great American “mandolin era” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
After college, I set the instrument aside for nearly twenty-five years, but returned to it in my late forties. Since then, the mandolin has become a central part of my musical life. I enjoy playing in Irish sessions whenever I can, and I am equally drawn to the worlds of gypsy jazz, swing, bluegrass, classical, and original music.
I have been fortunate to study with many remarkable mandolinists through private lessons and workshops at the Mandolin Symposium Retreats at UC Santa Cruz and other events. Special thanks to Mike Marshall, Caterina Lichtenberg, David Grisman, Don Stiernberg, and many others who have influenced my musical journey.
While I deeply admire these virtuoso players, I eventually realized that my own path was as a composer and recording artist. My focus has become creating music for the mandolin in a style that reflects my own musical interests and experiences. I hope you enjoy exploring it.
Mandolin Alone: Quiet Day is the first in an ongoing series of solo mandolin recordings. The album brings together compositions developed over many years and explores the instrument in a variety of settings—from intimate acoustic performances to electric mandolin soundscapes shaped with effects, looping, and electronic processing. At times reflective and meditative, at others playful and exploratory, these pieces represent my continuing fascination with the expressive possibilities of the mandolin as a solo instrument. https://williambradbury.hearnow.com/mandolin-alone-quiet-day
Mandolin Alone: Terry Riley’s In C
Years ago, I performed Terry Riley’s In C with an ensemble of about twenty musicians at the Carlsbad Music Festival. Although I had known the piece from the famous 1960s premier recording, it was through performing it that I truly fell in love with the music. The experience left a lasting impression on me, and I decided to record a mandolin version for the 60th anniversary of the premier of In C and Riley’s 90th birthday. The work consists of 53 short patterns that any number of musicians can play together and then move consecutively through them, advancing to the next at their discretion, staying with several patterns of each other. Because players are “out of sync,” wonderful sonorities arise throughout the piece, different with every performance. https://williambradbury.hearnow.com/mandolin-alone-terry-rileys-in-c
Mandolin Alone: Float
The third album in the series will be available summer of 2026.
MandoBasso – Mandolin/Bass Duo
In 2009, I founded MandoBasso with my dear friend, jazz and classical bassist Gunnar Biggs. We continue to perform regularly and have recorded two albums together. Both are available through our website, MandoBasso.com, where you will also find links to streaming services and purchase options.
Our debut album, MandoBasso, was released in 2010. Our second recording, MandoBasso: Porch Music, was recorded in 2021 on Gunnar’s porch during the second year of the pandemic—a project born from friendship, music, and the desire to keep playing together during an unusual time. I hope you enjoy listening to both and hope to see you at a live performance soon. https://mandobasso.com