The ABOTMA Young Performer of the Year Grant recipient for 2025 is George Teasdell.

The ABOTMA Young Performer of the Year George Teasdell is a genre-traversing mandolinist, studying at the Sydney Conservatorium while sharing the music of his small stringed instrument from mountaintop to seaside across Australia.
Growing up in Port Macquarie, George describes starting his music career as a three-year-old child ‘playing’ Eagles tunes on a ukulele. “After this stumbling, open-string smacking early childhood, I managed to get piano lessons at seven and since then I’ve been a bit more musically sane.”

A year-long obsession with the discography of Chris Thile led him to drive across country to acquire a mandolin at 16. He hasn’t put it down since and, building on the music of such heroes as Thile, Gillian Welch, and Béla Fleck, he strives to be a lifelong listener as much as performer. 

Now at 21 studying classical mandolin under Dr Stephen Lalor, George is the concertmaster of both the Sydney Mandolin Orchestra and the 70-piece annual FAME Festival orchestra.  At the same time, he plays and writes progressive acoustic music in several Bluegrass bands and duos. George has featured with The Dempsey Brothers at Mountaingrass and Dorrigo festivals where he has also been an animated presence in jam circles.

George was surprised and excited to receive the award. “Wow, I am incredibly honoured to have received this … this is not the email I was expecting to receive on a Monday afternoon!”  You will hear George play at Mountaingrass in November.

Image: Lindsay Mar