Punch Brothers recently brought their fall tour of the US to a close at the Flynn Center in Burlington, Vermont. Following one of the later tour stops, at The Egg's Swyer Theatre in Albany, New York, writer Michael Eck, reviewing the show for the Albany Times Union, declared: "Chris Thile is more than just a mandolinist. He's a musician."

Thile puts that multifaceted musicianship to good use tonight at Alys Stephens Center's Jemison Concert Hall in Birmingham, Alabama, when he joins the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, conductor Justin Brown, and violinist Daniel Szasz on a diverse program that includes works by Bach, Bartók, and Radiohead and culminates with Thile's own Mandolin Concerto, Ad astra per alas porci.

He spoke with the Birmingham News shortly before Punch Brothers recent performance at Carnegie Hall. Writer Michael Huebner says that tonight's concert aptly opens the orchestra's Symphony 7 series, "a repository for innovative programming that pushes the once-rigid boundaries of symphony orchestras."

In that vein, Thile insists in the article that whatever boundaries may exist among various musical genres or traditions aren't particularly useful to begin with.

"I don't acknowledge that there are anything but superficial differences between various types of good music," Thile tells Huebner. "The best music in any field has a thorough sense of conception and development. Every note is considered. Everything is in its right place. I'm trying to write music from that place. Music is music is music."

There's much more in the article at blogs.al.com.

Thile also spoke with Birmingham public radio station WBHM's Michael Krall about the new piece. You can listen to the interview online at wbhm.org.