Matt Flinner is an American mandolinist, music transcriber, and ensemble leader. Mike Marshall has called him "one of the truly great young mandolinists of our generation."
Biography
Early years
Flinner's first musical experiences were in Salt Lake as well. At age 10, his older brother Rex taught him how to play the banjo, and then the mandolin soon after. They formed the original Matt Flinner Trio, and played bluegrass music for tips. When his father hosted a bluegrass show on KRCL-FM in Salt Lake City, Flinner assisted in music selection. At age 12, Flinner joined the Peewee Pickers, who play bluegrass festivals and watched heroes perform, including the Osborne Brothers, Ralph Stanley, The Country Gentlemen, J. D. Crowe, and Doyle Lawson. Flinner won the Walnut Valley National Championship in Winfield, Kansas for bluegrass banjo in 1990 and the following year for mandolin. Flinner earned a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from University of Utah , studying with Morris Rosenzweig and performing with the Utah Symphony.
Sugarbeat
Flinner joined banjoist Tony Furtado's band Sugarbeat in the early 90s. Sugarbeat also featured lead vocalist and guitarist Ben Demerath, and Sally Truitt. Sugarbeat win first place at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 1992.
Modern Mandolin Quartet
Flinner moved to Nashville in 1999, and in 2002 he joined the Modern Mandolin Quartet, a chamber group that uses two mandolins, a mandola, and a mandocello to perform classical and contemporary compositions. With Flinner, they released a re-recorded version of The Nutcracker Suite. Along with Flinner, members include Dana Rath, Paul Binkley, and Adam Roszkiewicz. In 2013, their album Americana was nominated for three Grammy awards: Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance, Best Engineered Album, and Classical Producer Of The Year.
Matt Flinner Trio
Flinner formed The Matt Flinner Trio in 2006. Besides Flinner, the trio includes Ross Martin and Eric Thorin. For their Music du Jour shows, each member of the trio will compose a new song on the night before the performance and perform each new song at the show. In 2009, their first album Music du Jour included what they considered to be the best songs composed for the Music du Jour shows. The trio's 2016 album Traveling Roots features 12 more songs from the Music du Jour tours: four from each trio member.
Phillips, Grier & Flinner
, David Grier, and Matt Flinner perform, record, and tour as a trio. Their first album Phillips, Grier & Flinner was released in 2008. On their follow-up Looking Back, the trio cover songs such as Bill Monroe's "Tennessee Blues" and "Monroe's Hornpipe," Mongo Santamaría's "Afro Blue," and McCoy Tyner's "Search for Peace."
Recordings
Released in 1999, The View From Here was produced by Todd Phillips and featured David Grier, Jerry Douglas, and fiddlers Stuart Duncan, Darol Anger, and Tim O'Brien. Latitudein 2001 again included the assistance of Anger, Duncan on fiddle, Douglas, Grier, Phillips.
Matt Flinner Quartet
Flinner plays lead mandolin in his electric rock-influenced band The Matt Flinner Quartet, influenced by Miles Davis and John Scofield. The quartet includes Gawain Mathews, Sam Bevan, and Aaron Johnston.
Other projects
Flinner was a featured soloist with Trey Anastasio during the Nashville Chamber Orchestra’s performance of Don Hart's "Concertino for Strings, Two Mandolins and Guitar" with guitarist Roger Hudson and mandolinist Carlo Aonzo. When the band Leftover Salmon lost founding member Mark Vann to cancer in 2002, Flinner played banjo as a substitute until the band was able to reorganize. Flinner was featured on Steve Martin's album , which won the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album. Flinner also occasionally performs and tours with Darrell Scott, Frank Vignola, David Grier, Alison Brown, Missy Raines, the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble, and the Ying Quartet.
Personal life
Flinner lives with his wife Wendy in Nashville and teaches mandolin on a limited basis.
