Quotes

“I’ve known, played with, and listened to Don for many years and
have always had the highest regard for his mandolin style-understated, subtle, and sweet.”David Grisman

“[Stiernberg] is the foremost jazz mandolinist in America today”, says Mike Marshall, perhaps the most traveled of all reigning mandolin royalty, stylistically if not geographically. “He’s dedicated himself to the Jethro tradition but even beyond that, taking it as a very serious jazz instrument. His feel, just having Chicago in his blood, is so deep. He comes out here [to the San Francisco Bay area], he swings hard. Everybody’s just sitting there with their jaws dropped. And I think that these things are sort of cultural and regional–he embodies that urban guy who really knows what swing is about.”Mike Marshall

“…one of the world’s leading jazz mandolin virtuosos”Chicago Tribune

“If this music, with its joyous swing rhythms and nimble instrumental virtuosity, doesn’t persuade you that, yes, indeed, jazz can flourish on the mandolin(or any other instrument, really)then perhaps nothing will.”Howard Reich

“…lovely, lovely music …we’ve had some real pleasure hearing it”Chris Heim
Music Director, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio

“Don Stiernberg is one of the best mandolinists in the country, and he is Chicago’s own.”Richard Milne
host of Local Anesthetic on WXRT, Chicago’s Finest Rock

“….you have this really nice sense of time..very relaxed.”Terry Gross
host of Fresh Air on National Public Radio.

“….you don’t have to love the instrument to appreciate what Don Stiernberg has done with it….he has chosen exactly the right material to locate the mandolin precisely where it belongs in jazz-as a sweet and supple, slightly tremulous singer of love songs, both happy and sad.”Neil Tesser
noted jazz critic

“ Stiernberg’s improvising is a never-ending stream of riveting ideas that are distinctively his own.”David Royko
Chicago Tribune

“ Stiernberg’s mandolin creates absolute magic.”Rich Warren
Sing Out magazine

“Please know that your superb music making has helped to make our series more successful than we ever imagined.”John W.W. Sherer
Dir. of Music. Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL

“On behalf of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, I would like to extend my sincere thanks for your participation in the 2001 Marshall Field’s Day of Music. Despite uncertain times in the world, nearly 14,000 people came to Symphony Center to hear glorious music from across Chicagoland…Thanks and Bravo…”James Fahey
Assistant Director of Programming

“ A protege’ of Jethro Burns, Stiernberg has absorbed the master’s musical knowledge and technical skill and combined it with other jazz and mandolin influences to forge a compelling musical presence-one that’s his alone.”David McCarty
Mandolin Magazine

“His quartet swings as Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli did; interpreting classic songs and making them come alive.”Jim Santella
AllAboutJazz.com

“Don Stiernberg is an awesome mandolin player who makes the instrument cry and laugh. The audience adored him last year, and that’s why he’s coming back.”Mary Hatch
music programmer, Elgin Community College, Elgin, IL

“We had a lot of fine musicians here from all over the world. You know we in Germany like classical stuff a lot but we’re open to other styles too. We like Blues, Jazz, and Bluegrass–if it’s played well and sounds good. The tone produced by the mandolin must be round, warm, and full without disturbing sounds. We heard a wonderful mandolin sound from Don Stiernberg from Chicago in Bamberg.”Marga Wilden-Huesgen
mandolin professor emeritus and virtuoso
Hochschule fur Musik
Wuppertal/Koln, Germany

“Stiernberg and friends convey joy in virtually every track”Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune

“If the cliche “musician’s musician” means anything of value, it means an artist with superb instrumental skills who subjugate their innate virtuosity to create sublime, sophisticated music.These rare individuals possess a unique knack for always supporting a melody or enhancing an arrangement instead of flaunting their well-oiled chops. And if that definition holds true, then Don Stiernberg can only be called a musician’s musician’s musician. Admired by every great mandolinist of his generation and the true protege of the legendary Jethro Burns, Stiernberg has crafted a lifelong legacy of inserting the well-turned phrase, the dramatic pause, a hummingbird-like tremolo or the unexpected “outside” note into solos that delight the casual listener and amaze mandolinists of every caliber.”

David McCarty