The Mandolin Symposium Philosophy

The Mandolin Symposium

In 2004 David Grisman, Mike Marshall, Chris Thile and Stephen Ruffo came together to bring the first Mandolin Symposium to life. It was their vision to create a true symposium, a place where some of today’s best mandolin players would come together to share ideas, meet, teach and discuss the mandolin with students from all over the world. The first symposium exceeded everyone’s hopes and dreams — an enthusiastic revival of the instrument was felt by all who attended.

It was our hope in creating the Mandolin Symposium, that we could fill the void between what was basically a folk music approach to learning and a more systematic approach to studying and learning about the wide range of mandolin styles that exist. For twelve years, we belive that we facilitated our students’ quest for knowledge about the mandolin and mandolin music as much as they, in turn, taught us.

The Mandolin Symposium was a beautiful week of mandolin heaven that occurred at the end of June in Santa Cruz, CA overlooking the Pacific Ocean.