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 open-string smacking early childhood, he managed to get piano lessons at seven and since then has 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 22) studying classical mandolin under Dr Stephen Lalor, George is the concertmaster of the Sydney Mandolin Orchestra and will complete a Bachelor of Music (Performance) in 2025.

At the same time, he plays and writes progressive acoustic music in several bluegrass bands and duos, including being in Charley Castle and the Boys in the Well, the winners of the 2025 Tamworth Country Music Festival Busking Competition. George has featured with The Dempsey Brothers at Mountaingrass and Dorrigo festivals where he has also been an animated presence in jam circles.