Edgar Meyer


Edgar Meyer is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. His collaborators have spanned a wide range of musical styles and talents; among them are Joshua Bell, Hilary Hahn, Yo-Yo Ma, Jerry Douglas, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Chris Thile, Mike Marshall, Mark O'Connor, Christian McBride, and Emanuel Ax.
Meyer is a member of the Telluride Bluegrass Festival's "house band" super group, along with Bush, Fleck, Douglas, Duncan, and Bryan Sutton.

Early Life

Meyer grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He learned to play the double bass from his father, Edgar Meyer, Sr., who directed the string orchestra program for the local public school system. Meyer later went on to Indiana University to study with Stuart Sankey.

Career

As a composer, Meyer's music has been premiered and recorded by Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yo-Yo Ma, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Hilary Hahn, and the Emerson String Quartet, among others. The Nashville Symphony and the Aspen Music Festival and School commissioned his first purely orchestral work which was premiered by the Nashville Symphony in March 2017. Additionally, Bravo! Vail and The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields commissioned an Overture for Violin and Orchestra that was premiered by Joshua Bell and ASMF in June 2017.
In 2011, Meyer collaborated on The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, and Chris Thile. The album won two 2013 Grammy Awards. Meyer was honored with his fifth Grammy Award in 2015 for his Bass & Mandolin, recording with Thile. Meyer recorded a collection of Bach trios with Thile and Yo-Yo Ma, released in April 2017. In June 2020, the same group of musicians who recorded The Goat Rodeo Sesssions released a second album entitled Not Our First Goat Rodeo.
Meyer is Artist in Residence at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music and is on faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Discography

Solo work
With Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O'Connor
With Béla Fleck
  • Double Time
  • Perpetual Motion
  • * Won two Grammys
  • B Song
  • Music for Two
With Chris Thile
Miscellaneous collaborations'