Christian Sedelmyer is a daring and diversified musician who brings a 21st century vision to the four and five-string violin. He’s a Nashville fiddler who creatively balances the bluegrass and old-time traditions with the innovative freedom of his heroes Vassar Clements, John Hartford and Stuart Duncan. He’s an outstanding improvising instrumentalist who can soar and thrill in any style, including a recent Grammy-nominated jazz fusion album with Jerry Douglas. Since making a name with The Farewell Drifters in the early 2010s, Sedelmyer has been called on to be part of some of the edgiest and highest caliber instrumental projects of his time, and he’s offered deft musical support to some of today’s finest songwriters.
Sedelmyer grew up in Erie, PA and had his first stage time with his father’s folk rock band. He honed a quick mind at Wake Forest in NC, where he was a competitive debater. He lasted a year in a post-college corporate consulting job and followed a calling to Nashville in 2008. There, he became an integral part of the weekly jam at East Nashville’s 5 Spot and an avid student of bluegrass, old-time and other roots genres. As an integral member of The Farewell Drifters, he developed a new take on string band pop, which the band took to RockyGrass, Grey Fox, Winfield and other important acoustic music festivals. In 2012, he shifted focus to 10 String Symphony, a duo with fiddler/banjo player and songwriter Rachel Baiman. Conceived as a side experiment, the project lifted off with two charting albums and bookings in France, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong.
At the wide-open, musician-centric festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in 2013, Sedelmyer broke through to the upper echelons of contemporary acoustic music. Invited to be in the house band of a multi-artist tribute, he earned the admiration of iconic dobro player Jerry Douglas. Half a year later, Christian was invited to join a refreshed Jerry Douglas Band to play some of the most difficult and progressive instrumental music Douglas had ever made.
While he has much to say as a composer and featured performer, Sedelmyer has often deferred that work to the future in order to be the best possible sideman, learning to support a song with taste and touch. Among the artists who’ve called on him in this role: Kacey Musgraves, Molly Tuttle, Sierra Hull and Andrew Marlin of Mandolin Orange. And even more indicative of his stature as a modern bluegrass player are the special collaborations for which he’s been tapped. That includes the 2018 recording of the classic fiddle tune “Squirrel Hunters” by Special Consensus, which won the IBMA Award for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year, and the “Reunion” set at 2018’s MerleFest with Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Bryan Sutton and Mark Schatz, the most distinguished instrumentalists of the last 40 years.
The old saying “he’s just getting started” applies here. Sedelmyer is established as a first-call musician and admired by music watchers as a leader with limitless potential. Asked about his personal mission statement, he offers five highly refined words: “Protect inspiration at all costs.”