Fingers racing at the hound-chased tempo bluegrass commands, John McGann performed masterfully on the mandolin as he taught and inspired students at Berklee College of Music about the breadth and depth of traditional acoustic music.

Jazz drew from him equal proficiency and the kind of mandolin solos that could leave listeners wondering what sound would have emerged if the giants of jazz had learned to play on backcountry porches in Appalachia.

A multi-instrumentalist whose playing was in demand around the world, Mr. McGann wore his talent lightly, whether performing alone or as part of an ensemble.

“When I’m trying to play music, I don’t want it to be the wonder of me,’’ he told the Globe in 1999. “Virtuosity is worthless in itself. Being able to play an instrument with facility is monkeys with typewriters. It’s mechanics. So it’s amusing to me when I see people in music who have a big head about themselves. Because it’s not about them; it’s about the music.’’

Mr. McGann, a professor of strings at Berklee who arranged his life so he could spend most of his time home with his wife and daughter, died of complications from a kidney illness April 5 in Faulkner Hospital in Jamaica Plain. He was 52 and lived in Brookline.

On the Bluegrass Today website, the acclaimed young mandolinist Sierra Hull, who had studied with Mr. McGann at Berklee, called him “one of the most gifted mandolin players and musicians I have ever met. He knew how to teach in such a way not to intimidate, though he knew more than I will probably ever start to grasp.’’

“John was beyond category and beyond compare,’’ said Matt Glaser, artistic director of the American Roots Music Program at Berklee, in a statement on Berklee’s website. “He was like a garden of musical and human gifts.’’