New Music From Ethan Setiawan: “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica”
Peghead Nation mandolin instructor releases a new album of duets and trios with his mandolin friends, mentors, and heroes.
Peghead Nation’s Weekly Mandolin Workout instructor, Ethan Setiawan, has gathered who’s who of the mandolin world to join him on his latest album, Encyclopedia Mandolinnica, an exploration of the vast world of mandolin music through collaborations featuring Ethan with his mentors, friends, and heroes. Joining Ethan for this special project are some of his fellow Peghead Nation mandolin instructors, including Sharon Gilchrist, John Reischman, and Joe K. Walsh (see full track listing below). The album is due for release on August 15, 2025.
On Encyclopedia Mandolinnica, Champion Mandolinist Ethan Setiawan catalogs the possibilities of his instrument
On his new record, “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica,” award-winning instrumentalist Ethan Setiawan explores the many possibilities of mandolin music through duets and trios with his friends, mentors, and heroes. “The record attempts to be as descriptive as possible about as many aspects of the mandolin as possible – kind of like an encyclopedia,” explains Setiawan, “I think it also leaves the door open for some appendices…there may even be further volumes…” Taking inspiration from albums like Darol Anger’s “Diary of a Fiddler,” and Mike Barnett’s “+1,” which are both made up of fiddle duets with a variety of collaborators, the breadth of Setiawan’s ambitious project is brought into focus through a stripped-down mandolin ensemble format, allowing the instrument itself to take center stage.
Originally from Goshen, Indiana, Ethan Setiawan tried out numerous instruments before finding his way to the mandolin, making a name for himself when he won both the National Mandolin Championship in Winfield, KS, and the Rockygrass Mandolin Championship. He attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship. Years later, Setiawan has become a leading voice of the mandolin, his path wending its way through traditional bluegrass, to Bach partitas, and free jazz. He performs regularly with his progressive bluegrass band Fine Ground, and Scottish fusion duo Hildaland. His previous solo albums “Flux” and “Gambit” (produced by Darol Anger) were made up of original tunes drawing from all these wells, but employed a more traditional full band format.
“I like variety, having lots of different music to work on is interesting to me,” Setiawan explains. “I might fall under the category of having too many different things going on actually… but I think it helps that the projects I work on are all distinct from one another. I have a progressive bluegrass band, a Scottish/folk duo, and a Latin jazz string band. Each project calls on different aspects of my musicianship, and this record is different from all of them again!”
On “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica,” Setiawan duets with some of his past teachers, such as Don Stiernberg and Mike Marshall, both foundational to the mandolin’s place in current folk music. He also worked with players who are in the process of forging their influence on the instrument, like classical mandolinist Caterina Lichtenberg, Watchhouse frontman Andrew Marlin, and Scottish folk star Laura-Beth Salter. A notable moment on the record is an octave mandolin trio with Sharon Gilchrist and Darol Anger, called “Back At It,” a mid-tempo number that showcases the emotive melodic possibilities of the instrument in a lower register and the tasteful restraint of three powerhouse musicians. Contrastingly, on “Blazing Star,” Setiawan duets with Jacob Jolliff in lightning-fast, virtuosic conversation. “I did a better job of keeping the full picture in mind during the process for this record,” Setiawan explains. “I was thinking, ok do we have a fast tune? A slow tune? What else does this record need to make it all work together?”
Setiawan recorded and mixed the album himself over a year, allowing him to gain perspective and clarity on each tune and session before moving on to the next. “Spreading the sessions out was an interesting way to make a record” he says, “and not a way I’d ever made one before. The space between individual sessions let me think a lot about how the record was shaping up and make repertoire or arrangement decisions based on what had already happened.”
With “Encyclopedia Mandolinnica,” Ethan Setiawan has added a collection of foundational mandolin music to his already illustrious recording catalog. A musician whose thirst for knowledge and exploration is never sated, Setiawan shows once again that he is always interested in reaching for the next challenge.
Track Listing
Victoria (feat. Mike Marshall)
Forecast (feat. Matt Flinner) 04:13
Blazing Star (feat. Jacob Jolliff)
Mount Holly (feat. Joe K. Walsh)
Brothers and Sisters (feat. Caterina Lichtenberg)
Rockingham Waltz (feat. John Reischman)
Slurpee (feat. Moriah Ozberkmen)
Back At It (feat. Sharon Gilchrist and Darol Anger)
I Hear A Rhapsody (feat. Don Stiernberg)
Big Hill (feat. Andrew Marlin)
Shenk’s (feat. Laura-Beth Salter)
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Ethan Setiawan has a command of the mandolin far beyond his 20-some odd years and has won both the National Mandolin Championship at Winfield, Kansas, and the Rockygrass Mandolin Championship. Called “creative and virtuosic” by WBUR, his path has wended its way through traditional bluegrass, Bach partitas, and free jazz.
Ethan was one of three children who were homeschooled by folk-loving parents, so his childhood was untraditional and full of exploration. “As a teenager, I loved the idea of going to jams and having this community of people I could hang out with,” he says. He began driving to Chicago to take lessons with Don Stiernberg and traveled to California to attend The Mandolin Symposium. After finishing high school, Setiawan attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship.
His debut full-length album, Flux, is made up of original tunes drawing from the wells of bluegrass, jazz, and new acoustic music. On Gambit, his most recent release, Ethan takes the calculated musical risks of a seasoned player. He moves aptly between stylistic influences, harking back to the experimental string band music pioneered in the early 1980s while presenting entirely original compositions. In addition to his solo projects, Setiawan is an in-demand sideman and band member, and can be seen playing with Acoustic Nomads, Hildaland, and Darol Anger among others.
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