Ethan Setiawan
Straddling the bounds of roots music, bringing tradition to light with deep innovation, mandolinist Ethan Setiawan brings worlds together. A Boston-based mandolin player who’s won such accolades as the National Mandolin Championship and the RockyGrass Mandolin Championship, he’s a member of bands Corner House, Mudskippers, The Harmolodic String Band, and freelances with musicians including Darol Anger and Tony Trischka.
His path has wended its way through traditional bluegrass, to Bach partitas, to free jazz, and his debut full-length album, “Flux” is made up of original tunes drawing from all these wells. The album was conceived and crafted as a whole; the tunes were written for the band, who were chosen for the tunes. To write the album, he dove deep into the compositional techniques and tunes of some of the pioneers of the current wave of bluegrass: Bela Fleck, Matt Flinner, David Grisman and Mike Marshall, to name a few.
As befits a musician in the 21st century, you can also find him teaching lessons or classes at the Passim School of Music, or recording colleagues' projects on a day at home.
“Northfield is really doing something right over there in Michigan. They’ve revolutionized the world of the octave mandolin! I’m really lucky to have this beautiful instrument - it’s a great voice to write on, in addition to being really fun to play on stage and off.”
