David Benedict

Originally from South Carolina, mandolinist David Benedict is a Boston-based performer, composer, and instructor seeking to blend tradition and innovation through his music. Alumnus member of Missy Raines & The New Hip and producer of the popular weekly Mandolin Mondays video series, David is now a part of the adventurous, young New England bluegrass band Mile Twelve.

In 2013, he graduated with a unique degree in mandolin music performance from Bryan College in Tennessee, where he studied with Grammy-nominated mandolinist Matt Flinner. Since then, David has played at venues and festivals across the southeast including the Savannah Music Festival and TEDx Conferences–sharing the stage with such musicians as Casey Driessen, Matt Flinner, Julian Lage, Mike Marshall, Tim O’Brien, Darrell Scott, Tommy Emmanuel, and others.

Over the years, David’s broad tastes have led him to push the conventional boundaries of the mandolin by exploring a variety of musical styles including bluegrass, old time, celtic, jazz, classical, and more. He has also been observed to have a unique and authentic artistic voice as a composer. This distinct creative style is displayed in his two albums of original acoustic instrumental music: the first, Into the True Country (2014), which features a crew of outstanding studio musicians and was produced by Flinner, and the second, an intrepid duo album with Chattanooga finger-style guitarist Michael Moore, called Each by Side (2015).