Instructors
2023

Instructors

Instructors

Instructors

Your wait is over!


Take a look at the 2023 Academy Instructors in their respective categories below:

Banjo

Instructors

Kristin Scott Benson

The Grascals

Kristin Scott Benson is the five-time International Bluegrass Music Association’s Banjo Player of the Year and recipient of the 2018 Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass.

Since 2008, she has been a member of Grammy-nominated and two-time IBMA Entertainers of the Year, The Grascals. Kristin is one of the nation’s top bluegrass banjo players, exhibiting impeccable taste, timing, and tone. With an attentive ear to back-up, she is known and respected as a true team player among her peers.

Kristin’s latest solo album, entitled Stringworks, on Mountain Home Records, was released in July of 2016. It debuted in the top-ten on Billboard’s Bluegrass album chart and the self-penned opening track, Great Waterton, was nominated for IBMA’s Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. The record is a mixture of styles, reflecting her tastes, and features original and traditional instrumentals, as well as vocal songs, all showcasing her banjo playing.

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Instructors

Jereme Brown

The Po’Ramblin’ Boys

Hailing from the little historic town of bardstown Kentucky. Jereme grew up playing bluegrass music. Starting out in his dads national touring band, Jereme has played the banjo since the age of 10. Later in 2014 he helped create The Grammy nominated Po Ramblin Boys which has toured all over the world.

Jereme’s true love is playing music but also enjoys learning more about audio engineering. In Jereme’s almost ten year Career Solely playing music he has been nominated for a Grammy in 2019, made a grand ole opry debut . Played shows with Ralph Stanley, James king, and Jim Lauderdale

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Instructors

Wes Corbett

Sam Bush Band

There has never been a shortage of prodigious musicians in bluegrass music, especially on it’s signature instrument, the 5-string banjo. Less common are virtuosic players with deep and diverse musical backgrounds that inform their approach to bluegrass. Though the numbers of musically omnivorous bluegrass musicians are on the rise, few have the staggeringly broad musical base of banjo player, composer, and producer, Wes Corbett.

Wes’s skills as a player have kept him on the forefront of acoustic music since he first picked up the banjo as a teenager in the pacific northwest. He would go on to be a key player in Boston’s vibrant music scene, an instructor at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and today is a rising star in Nashville’s elite bluegrass scene.

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Bass

Instructors

Paul Kowert

Hawktail

Paul Kowert grew up in Madison, Wisconsin and studied at The Curtis Institute of Music. He joined the band Punch Brothers in 2008 and has made five albums with them - including All Ashore, which won the Grammy for Best Folk Album, and most recently Hell on Church Street. He played with David Rawlings for several years and was in the house band for Chris Thile’s radio show “Live From Here” during its first year. His band Hawktail (with longtime collaborators Jordan Tice, Brittany Haas and Dominick Leslie) just released its third album Place of Growth on Padiddle Records. Paul lives in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo Credit: Jon R Luini)

Instructors

Jasper Lorentzen

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys

Middle TN is home to bass player Jasper Lorentzen, a man who got his start in music on a classical guitar in the great state of North Dakota! Jasper’s family band, “The Old Hat Trio” was a favorite in the Capital City of Bismarck. He switched to stand up bass long before he made the trip south to pursue a degree at The Kentucky School of Bluegrass & Traditional Music in 2010. Down south, he quickly became immersed in the culture-rich Appalachian Mountains. Opportunity knocked as he broke into the music business with the City of Gatlinburg’s popular “Tunes and Tales” as a street musician, where he discovered that the best way to “refine the craft” is before a live audience.

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Instructors

Mark Schatz

With his summer 2021 release of GRIT & POLISH Mark Schatz once again proves he’s true a ‘renaissance man’ of the acoustic music world. A two-time winner of the IBMA Bass Player of the Year Award, Mark is best known for his contributions on some of the most iconic recordings in bluegrass by artists such as Tony Rice, Bela Fleck, John Hartford, Claire Lynch, Tim O’Brien, Sara Jarosz, and Nickel Creek. But Mark is also a master of the clawhammer banjo and is featured playing his own compositions on two solo projects on Rounder Records, BRAND NEW OLD TYME WAY and STEPPIN’ IN THE BOILER HOUSE. Mark is always ready to cut loose with some Southern Appalachian clogging and hambone, and his stagecraft was honed through a long association with the acclaimed Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, for whom he still serves as Musical Director.


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Dobro

Sally Van Meter, 2020 RockyGrass Academy dobro instructor

Sally Van Meter

Since 1977, Sally’s slide guitar work has gained respect and recognition among peers and audiences for her commitment to staying true to playing music with heart and soul. She is well-known for her performances & recorded works ranging from solo work to collaborations with artists such as Led Kaapana, Jorma Kaukonen, Jerry Garcia, Chris Hillman and Herb Pedersen, Cyril Pahinui, Jerry Douglas, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Alison Brown, Taj Mahal, Peter Rowan & the Rowan Brothers, Yonder Mountain String Band, Tony Rice, Kathy Kallick, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Gerry O’Beirne, Maura O’Connell, the inimitable Leftover Salmon and more.

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Instructors

Mike Witcher

Resonator guitarist Mike Witcher has toured and recorded with the likes of Dolly Parton, Dwieght Yokem, Peter Rowan, Bette Middler, The Gibson Brothers, Sara Watkins, and Laurie Lewis. Known for his gorgeous tone and tasfull playing, Mike is also one of the most sought after educators in the world of slide guitar.

Fiddle

Instructors

Brittany Haas

Hawktail

Brittany Haas is widely regarded as one of the most influential fiddlers of her generation. Born in Northern California, Brittany grew up honing her craft at string camps nationwide, and developed her unique style of fiddling at the influence of her mentors, Bruce Molsky and Darol Anger. A prodigious youth, Haas began touring with Darol Anger’s Republic of Strings at the age of fourteen. At seventeen, she released her debut, self-titled solo album (produced by Anger). Haas continued to tour and record while simultaneously earning a degree in Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University (where she also minored in Music Performance). It was during her time at Princeton that Brittany was asked to join the seminal “chamber-grass” band Crooked Still, with whom she has made four recordings and toured the world.

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Instructors

George Meyer

George Meyer, violin, is equally interested in fiddle playing and classical music, and the music he writes draws on both sources.

He has performed his own compositions at Telluride Bluegrass Festival, RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival, the Savannah Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, Bravo! Vail, the Aspen Music Festival, the Rome Chamber Music Festival, the Tribeca New Music Festival, Bargemusic, and the 92nd Street Y. In 2022 and 2023, he played in 20 cities with Sam Bush, Mike Marshall, and his father Edgar Meyer. He has also appeared in performance with Bryan Sutton, Jerry Douglas, Fred Sherry, Paul Neubauer and his mother, Cornelia Heard. In September 2022, his 2013 piece for solo string quartet with string orchestra, Concerto Grosso, featured in the New York Classical Players’ three season-opening concerts with Stella Chen, Emma Frucht, Gabriel Cabezas, and George as soloists.

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Instructors

Laura Orshaw

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys

GRAMMY nominated fiddler and vocalist Laura Orshaw has toured throughout North America and Europe with Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass, the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, Alan Bibey & Grasstowne, and her current band, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys. In 2020 Laura won in two categories at the prestigious International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards Show, and in 2019, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) named Laura the Fiddle Performer of the Year, making her the first woman to win the award. In 2021, Laura signed as a solo artist with Dark Shadow Recording and her debut album out in Spring 2022 has already received significant attention and airplay. Laura has performed with Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, John Scofield, Mike Compton, Sarah Jarosz, Tony Trischka, Becky Buller, and Darol Anger among others.

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Guitar

Instructors

Chris “Critter” Eldridge

Punch Brothers

As a member of Punch Brothers since the band’s inception, guitarist Chris Eldridge has been at the vanguard of acoustic music for over a decade. Although initially drawn to the electric guitar, by his mid-teens Chris Eldridge had developed a deep love for acoustic music, thanks in part to his father, Ben, a banjo player and founding member of the seminal bluegrass group The Seldom Scene. Eldridge later gained in-depth exposure to a variety of different musical styles while studying at Oberlin Conservatory, where he earned a degree in music performance in 2004. During his time at Oberlin, Eldridge studied with legendary guitarist Tony Rice.

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Instructors

Rebecca Frazier

Rebecca Frazier began playing guitar professionally in Telluride, Colorado, in the late 90’s. Frazier came to national attention in 2006 as the first woman on the cover of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, and after moving to Nashville in 2007, she was recognized as “a genuine triple threat as a singer, songwriter, and flatpicking guitarist” (Nashville Scene). The Virginia native was picked up by Compass Records for her flatpicking/songwriting solo showcase When We Fall (2013). The album received heavy airplay on SiriusXM Radio and peaked at #3 on the national Roots Music Report Chart. In 2018, Frazier became the first woman to be nominated for SPBGMA Guitar Performer of the Year and was nominated again in 2019. Paste Magazine deemed Frazier one of “Seven Women Smashing the Bluegrass Glass Ceiling” in 2017.

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Instructors

Josh Rinkel

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys

Josh Rinkel, of The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys, is a GRAMMY nominated guitar player, vocalist, and songwriter who was raised in Shepherdsville, Kentucky. While he didn’t grow up in a musical family, Josh got his start as a young teen when he snuck into a music store at the mall where his family was shopping and bought a $200 banjo with money he’d saved. His mother encouraged him to take lessons and introduced Josh to a local family that had a bluegrass band called Tommy Brown and the County Line Grass. Tommy and his son, Jereme, gave Josh banjo lessons in exchange for helping carry sound gear and setting up merchandise while they were on tour. Soon after, Josh joined Tommy Brown and the County Line Grass on stage as a full-time band member. In 2014, Josh got a call from longtime friend, C.J. Lewandowski, who invited him to join the house band at Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. This move sparked the beginning of The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys.

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Instructors

Jordan Tice

Hawktail

Jordan Tice is a singer, songwriter and guitarist who combines witty, well-crafted songs with deft fingerstyle and flatpick guitar playing. He has 5 solo records of original music to his name as well as 3 as a member of the instrumental bluegrass supergroup, Hawktail.

His latest record, Motivational Speakeasy, released in 2020, features only Jordan, his voice and his guitar. It was produced by Kenneth Pattengale of the Milk Carton Kids and has garnered rave reviews from outlets such as NPR Music, PopMatters, American Songwriter, and No Depression.

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Mandolin

Instructors

Sharon Gilchrist

Sharon Gilchrist has long made her home in the American traditional acoustic music scene. Whether she’s playing mandolin or upright bass, singing a traditional ballad or performing original material, you hear an artist steeped in traditional Appalachian music relaying those sounds through her own diversified musical lens. Sharon has performed with the Peter Rowan & Tony Rice Quartet, Scott Nygaard and John Reischman, Darol Anger, Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, Uncle Earl. She recognized internationally as a respected teacher of mandolin and offers four courses in mandolin instruction online at pegheadnation.com.

http://www.sharongilchristmusic.com

Instructors

CJ Lewandowski

The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys

Born and raised in Missouri, C.J. Lewandowski started singing in church with his Grandmother at an early age. He grew up singing in school choirs and found Bluegrass after going to see “O Brother Where Art Thou” in theatres. He immediately took up the love of vintage instruments and tones. In high school, he formed a band called Blue Generation with his childhood friend, Steve Lawson. He went one to be an Ozark Bluegrass Boys and further dove into the regional music of Missouri and surrounding areas. Of the 50 years of Jim Orchard & The Ozark Bluegrass Boys, he was one of 3 mandolin players, following the footsteps of Jim Orchard himself. I’m 2008, C.J. formed the regionally popular traditional bluegrass band, The Men of The Week. Going on to win several SPBGMA Midwest Awards, including Entertainer of The Year.

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Instructors

Andrew Marlin

Watchhouse

Andrew Marlin is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based out of Chapel Hill, NC. He’s known for his captivating songwriting, presented both lyrically with his band Watchhouse (formerly known as Mandolin Orange) and instrumentally under his own name.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, Marlin recorded two dynamic, instrumental albums, Witching Hour and Fable & Fire, which followed up 2018’s Buried in a Cape.

Witching Hour, which was released February 5, 2021, is redolent of bluegrass and American roots music soundscapes; rich fiddle and mandolin weave through powerful, coursing tunes. Folk Alley said the record “showcase(s) Marlin’s ingenious ways of dwelling in a tune and turning it inside out, grounding it in tradition but carrying it out to new heights through brilliant innovation.” Fable & Fire, which was released two short weeks after Witching Hour, draws more from the sounds of Irish roots music and is reminiscent of the melodies that came over from the Emerald Isle to early Appalachia. Red Line Roots called the album a “masterpiece” and that “Andrew’s instrumental songs have a way of speaking volumes without actually having any words within them. Rich palettes of emotion, place, space and vibe that in all my years of listening to instrumental records, I am yet to find an equal to.”


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Songwriting

Instructors

Kristin Andreassen

Kristin Andreassen creates music that’s both inventive and deeply rooted in American traditional music. Her most recent release was a songwriting collaboration with a child psychiatrist named Dr. Kari Groff. Calling themselves The Bright Siders, their debut album A Mind of Your Own (Smithsonian Folkways) features songs and skits written in service to children’s mental health, sung by a cast of Americana all-stars including Ed Helms, The War & Treaty, Gaby Moreno, Punch Brothers, and more. Chosen as one of the year’s top three children’s releases by the American Library Association, the record picks up on the playful spirit behind Kristin’s first kids’ radio hit, “Crayola Doesn’t Make a Color for Your Eyes”. That song, like so much of Kristin’s work, was inspired by the timeless rhythms and lyrics that drew her first to old time and bluegrass music. Her touring career started as a clogger and stepdancer with Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble, then as guitar player and singer with the stringband Uncle Earl (w/ Abigail Washburn, KC Groves & Rayna Gellert).

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Vocals

Instructors

Stephen Mougin

Sam Bush Band

Stephen Mougin has been a vocalist and guitar player for the Sam Bush Band since 2006. He owns and operates Dark Shadow Recording, an independent record label and recording studio, where he produces and engineers albums for clients and label artists including Becky Buller, Rick Faris, The Stillhouse Junkies and more.

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Instrument Building

Instructors

Daniel Roberts

Luthier

After studying Fine Arts and English Literature at Montana State University, Dan accepted a position with Flatiron Banjo and Mandolin Company building banjos. By then Gibson had purchased Flatiron and soon they decided to build a new acoustic guitar factory right there in Bozeman, Montana and begin building acoustic guitars again. It didn’t take long for Dan to be offered positions running the shaper room, then the neck line and finally to be Rear Plant manager responsible for everything from resaw to delivering completed white wood guitars to the finish department.

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Instructors

Marcus Engstrom

Luthier

Marcus Engstrom developed a love for music and instrument making and repair early. He started working on instruments at 13 and soon was doing small repairs for a Music Store in Falun, Sweden, and built his first guitar in shop class when he was 15.

Initially, Marcus trained as a Machinist for 3 years. Then, after graduation, he went to Norway to a 4 year instrument building school, the Music Instrument Academy. As the final portion of his education at MIA, He went to Markneukirchen, Germany, (Where CF Martin the first trained and emigrated from,) and earned his degree as a Journeyman Stringed Instrument builder/repairman.

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Instructors

Bobby Wintringham

Luthier

Bobby Wintringham is returning for his sixth year as an instructor at the Academy’s mandolin building experience. He is a full time luthier building San Juan Mandolins in his shop in Dolores, Colorado. Says Bobby, “The only thing more rewarding than building instruments is being able to share that knowledge with others.”

SanJuanMandolins.com

Instructors

Brody Klemer

Luthier

Brody has been apprenticing under Michael Hornick since March of 2012. Under Michael’s tutelage, Brody is primarily assisting with the guitar building process at the RockyGrass Academy. He has also recently completed his first full-size guitar under Michael’s wing.

Instructors

Mark Monroe Gibson

Luthier, Songwriter

Songwriter, recording artist and recovering attorney, Mark Monroe Gibson will be joining the mandolin building faculty. This will be Mark’s fifth time building at the Academy.

Instructors

William Classon

Luthier

William Classon is a former geologist and current aspiring luthier, with experience making instruments and instrument parts at a premier CNC machine shop. I was also privileged to complete a full-time, 6-month apprenticeship under Dan Roberts in 2022, where I learned instrument building, repair, design, and much more.”

Kid’s Camp Instructors

Instructors

Leslie Ziegler

Kids Camp Lead Instructor

Leslie Ziegler is a bassist and singer with experience performing and teaching across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. After graduating from Western Michigan University with a degree in Music Education, she focused on becoming an orchestra director in Michigan and worked with string students on traditional repertoire and also sprinkled in alternative styles such as bluegrass and jazz.

After her time in Michigan, she moved across the country in 2009 to direct orchestras for Boulder Valley School District in Boulder, CO. Here, she met talented musicians at various jams in the area and played with Colorado’s most talented acts, began teaching at Bluegrass Camps for kids and became a founding member of The Railsplitters.

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Instructors

Justin Hoffenberg

Jake Leg

Originally from Northern Illinois, Justin Hoffenberg currently makes his home in Boulder, CO. Growing up in a musical household, he attended many concerts as a child and was drawn towards music. At 10 years old Justin joined his 5th grade orchestra, where he played the violin for one year before beginning Suzuki lessons, which he pursued until graduating high school. The summer between 5th and 6th grade proved a fateful one, as a family friend recommended attending the Rockygrass festival in Lyons, CO, as well as the camp that precedes it. Justin ventured to the camp not knowing anything about Bluegrass, but was immensely changed by the experience.

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Instructors

Dominick Leslie

Hawktail

Colorado native Dominick Leslie has been around live music all his life, having attended his first bluegrass festival when he was just five months old. Growing up he was surrounded by music, listening to and jamming with his dad’s bluegrass band, and thanks to his Dad’s influence, he has been playing instruments since he was old enough to hold one. At the age of four, Dominick acquired a ukulele tuned like the bottom four strings of a guitar, igniting a deep passion for music that still burns brightly. Dominick’s abilities progressed rapidly on guitar, fiddle and mandolin, but eventually the mandolin became his obsession and demanded his total focus.

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Instructors

Gina Marie Leslie

Colorado-raised songstress Gina Marie Leslie is a longtime RockyGrass Academy student, now living in New Orleans. Born into a family of musicians, she grew up in a culture of jamming that uplifts all players involved and creates a welcoming atmosphere. A multi-instrumentalist (guitar, fiddle, bass, voice, ukulele) and songwriter, Gina has the tools to guide a musician at any level to feel the joy and beauty of connection through music. She plays with Damn Gina, The Bad Bad Leslie’s, Mean Gina Jazz Band, and as a side musician for other projects.

OMGina.com

Instructors

Sam Leslie

Born in Evergreen, Colorado, Sam Leslie is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and sound engineer. After five formative years in Boston, Massachusetts studying at the Berklee College of Music, Sam now lives in Nashville, Tennessee. 

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Instructors

Brad Murphey

“Murph” first fell in love with bluegrass music while living in Chicago and immediately started studying it with the great Czech guitar player Slavek Hanzlik as well as Don Stiernberg and Greg Cahill. After living in Chicago he moved to Colorado and founded the band Slipstream which performed at many notable festivals such as Grey Fox in New York. He then toured the country performing with Nashville singer/songwriter Rorey Carroll and has performed with such bluegrass luminaries as Noam Pikelny, Matt Flinner, the Infamous Stringdusters, Crooked Still, Darol Anger as well as many others and has been an endorsed artist for Elixir Guitar Strings for 14 years. Currently Murph is living in Shanghai, China, performing with mandolin virtuoso Tom Peng and teaching guitar lessons while exploring as much of Asia as possible.

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Guest Instructors

Instructors

Will Scherer

Violinmaker

Will is our resident violinmaker and owner of Scherer Violin Shop in Louisville Colorado. During RockyGrass Academy, Will devotes his time to providing support to academy students and and instructors. Will grew up playing violin and developed his musical passion with fiddle music in its various forms. During college he found himself hanging out at violin shops and eventually decided to pursue violinmaking. In 2013 he entered the violin making world through the mentorship of Thomas Verdot in Columbia Missouri. Will was selected for the Traditional Arts Apprenticeship program in 2015, funded by the Missouri Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. He continued his training as an assistant with Verdot and studied with Hans Nebel through the MCLA violin restoration program.

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