Renowned mandolin performer, producer and recording artist Butch Baldassari, adjunct professor of mandolin at Vanderbilt's Blair School of Music, died on Saturday at the age of 56.
"Butch Baldassari was a wonderful artist, a warm and generous teacher and a great colleague and friend," said Mark Wait, dean of Blair School of Music. "We were extremely fortunate to enjoy his affiliation with the Blair School and to learn from this remarkable man."
Baldassari was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor 20 months ago. Friends and admirers raised money to help defray his medical bills with a benefit concert at the Blair School of Music in October 2007.
Baldassari taught both private and group lessons at Blair since 1996.
"I do enjoy looking at different types of musical examples from various styles, and I like students who practice and make progress," Baldassari said in an interview with Mandozine, a Web site dedicated to the mandolin.
Baldassari is recognized for founding the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble in 1991. His goal was to revive the tradition of a mandolin orchestra, a type of performance group popular in the 1800s.
"Most mandolin players have seen pictures of the old mandolin orchestras ... but hardly anybody today has ever heard one," Baldassari said in an article in The Tennessean in 1996. "My mission is to take that turn-of-the-century concept and make it modern."
The Nashville Mandolin Ensemble performed everything from Bach to bluegrass and even recorded the theme from Star Trek. The group's diverse repertoire reflected Baldassari's admiration of artists ranging from Miles Davis and Led Zeppelin to Bill Monroe.
Baldassari, a Scranton, Pa., native, didn't become a professional musician until the age of 35. When he visited the 1972 Philadelphia Folk Festival he decided to switch from guitar to mandolin. After working in casinos in Nevada as a craps table croupier, he toured with a group called the Weary Hearts. Later, he performed and recorded with the Lonesome Standard Time, Richard Green's Grass is Greener and his own group, the Butch Baldassari Trio.
"Although I can't play for now, the music in me is still very much alive. It feeds my soul and excites me every day," Baldassari said in an e-mail written in December, according to The Tennessean.
The Vanderbilt community will fondly remember Baldassari's musical and personal legacy, according to Wait.
"Butch's passing is a huge loss to the Blair School, to Vanderbilt and to the musical community," he said.
