Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg

Two of the world's greatest mandolin players, Mike Marshall and Caterina Lichtenberg, play a concert of mandolin duets in a Woods Hole living room at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, October 22, 2025. Ticket holders will learn the exact location of the concert, and other mission critical information, by email about 24h before the show.

Here's the executive summary: Mike was part of a small group of musicians that invented "newgrass," and he was the first American musician to dive into Brazilian choro and play it in the USA. Now he's teamed up with German mandolin professor Caterina Lichtenberg (in more ways than one; they have two daughters) and gone deep on Bach and other classical composers. Expect a mix of newgrass, bluegrass, Bach and other classical pieces, Brazilian choro, exquisitely rendered American fiddle tunes, and the unexpected.

Mike turned pro at age 18. He was a formative member of Psychograss, with Tony Trischka, David Grier, Joe Craven, and others. He was an early member of David "Dawg" Grisman's n-tets, where he began a life-long musical collaboration with Darol Anger. He went to Brazil, where the choro tradition blew his mind, and then came back to start Choro Famoso, the first well-known US-based choro band. Then he met Caterina Lichtenberg, and did a decade-plus deep dive into classical mandolin. In his most recent, historic Woods Hole concert with Darol Anger, on February 10, 2024, his American traditional musical renditions were astoundingly virtuosic.

On a personal note, Mike is one of my most revered musical heros and most treasured friends. Not only is his music breath-taking, but he's introduced me to some of my absolute favorite players, like Alex Hargreaves, Hamilton de Holanda, Choro das 3, Danilo Brito and, of course, Caterina. I'm so thrilled to host him and Caterina in Woods Hole again.

Classical mandolin has been Catarina Lichtenberg's life work. She currently is Professor of Classical Mandolin at the Music Conservatory in Cologne, Germany, which is the only known position of its kind in the world.

Caterina has released 13 CDs in a variety of chamber music settings. As a specialist on early period instruments, Caterina was invited to record on a 1775 mandolin from the Ferdinandeum Museum in Innsbruck in Austria. As a featured soloist she has performed with the New Century Orchestra under Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, the LA Guitar Quartet, the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, Germany under Diego Fasolis and the Aachen Chamber Orchestra and numerous other prestigious groups.

Mike and Caterina's first recording blurred the lines between classical, jazz, bluegrass and Brazilian musical backgrounds. Their second release were duets by Johann Sebastian Bach (The Two Part Inventions, Organ Duets and Canons) on mandolin and Mandocello was released in 2015. Their third CD includes original compositions by Caterina & Mike.

This concert is rated, "Absolutely do not miss this for anything!" by your completely unbiased host.

See you at the music!