Immersing herself in the traditions of bluegrass and having studied jazz performance at university, BB’s banjo playing is an exciting synthesis of new and old ideas. “She demonstrates a command of the instrument, and plays with great rhythmic clarity both in the traditional and progressive realms. J.D. Crowe co-mingles with the future,” says Tony Trischka. Her euphoric energy and love of the genre are readily apparent in any of her live performances.

Currently, BB lives in Cambridge, MA. Mile Twelve has won numerous IBMA awards, including 2020 New Artists of the Year and 2017 Momentum Band of the Year. BB won the 2015 Freshgrass Banjo contest and was a winner of the Steve Martin Banjo Prize in 2020.

While Jens has written and continues to write the music for all of The Kruger Brothers’ original tunes, in 2006, Jens began his “official” venture into the themes and forms of classical music when he was commissioned to write Music from the Spring for banjo, guitar, bass and full symphonic orchestra. Since then, he has received three commissions to write classical pieces which The Kruger Brothers have performed with various orchestral ensembles: Appalachian Concerto with string quartet; Spirit of the Rockies with a small orchestra, and most recently in 2013, Lucid Dreamer, a chamber music piece written specifically for and commissioned by the Kontras Quartet and debuting in 2014.

Jens is a member of the Blue Ridge Music Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 2011. In 2013, he was awarded the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass Music. Jens is the first winner of the award who resides in North Carolina and the first born outside of the United States. Happy Traum, guitarist, folksinger, teacher, and writer for aspiring musicians, has described Kruger as, “One of the world’s most musically sophisticated and technically accomplished five‐string banjo players.”

While Jens plays in a melodic style that has roots in bluegrass, his music is distinguished by long, melodic passages and a complex compositional foundation, often building on jazz or classical themes and techniques.

In 2009, his album Territory (Smithsonian Folkways) was named Best Americana Album at the Independent Music Awards. Tony produced Steve Martin’s 2011, Grammy nominated Rare Bird Alert (Rounder), featuring performances by Paul McCartney and the Dixie Chicks. Tony was the musical director and associate producer of the 2011 documentary Give Me the Banjo, which aired on PBS.

As one of the instrument’s top teachers he has created numerous instructional books, DVDs, CDs and the groundbreaking Tony Trischka School of Banjo that is the online banjo home for students from around the world.

In 2012, Tony became a United States Artists Friends Fellow in recognition of the excellence of his work in 2017 he was inducted into the American Banjo Museum’s Hall of Fame.

New York City’s vibrant and diverse music scene catapulted Joel into an eclectic mix of musical genres. From rock and blues to Broadway, salsa and classical, Joel toured cruise ships and countless concert venues. He met bass master Milt Hinton in his first college year, and became his bass student for several years. In addition to being a radio show host in Vermont, a travel agent in NY, and a touring musician, Joel wore many hats in the 80’s.

Joel moved to Switzerland in 1989. Shortly thereafter, he began playing bass in many bands and toured extensively throughout Europe. After meeting Uwe and Jens in 1989, they decided to work together in many of the bands at the time, averaging about 250 shows a year. Joel became the exclusive bassist for the Kruger Brothers in 1995 and has been touring and recording with them ever since. In 1997, Joel was invited to join Uwe and Jens at MerleFest and after 6 years of touring in the USA, he decided to move back to the USA in 2003.

His musical background and expertise as well as his ability to pick up music quickly made him loved and respected by all his fellow musicians. Joel Landsberg was instrumental in shaping the unique sound of the Kruger Brothers through his ability to adapt to solid timing, harmonic understanding, and expanded musical expression.

When the Kruger Brothers’ touring schedule allows, he volunteers as an EMT in Wilkesboro NC and helps out around the community as much as he can.

Recently, the clawhammer banjo has become her rhythmic muse, which is featured in her newest project, Tanasi, where she has been building on the foundations of old-time and bluegrass, while making connections with roots players from around the world.

Lucey is passionate about helping players build confidence, strong timing, and a true feel for bluegrass and old-time groove. Her teaching style is warm, empowering, and practical—focused on getting students playing with others, and experiencing the joy of being the heartbeat of the band.

His album, Six String Swing, ushered the dobro into the realm of Gypsy Jazz and his mentor Mike Auldridge said it best when describing the album, “The swing music Billy Cardine is tackling on the resophonic guitar on this project is some of my all-time favorite music, and in his hands, the music itself takes on an all-new meaning to me. It all sounds so natural to the resophonic guitar that one is almost forgiven for not realizing that this is pretty much impossible to pull off so convincingly. Billy is definitely a rising star in the resophonic world!”

He has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Ryman Auditorium and major festivals, such as Bonnaroo, MerleFest and RockyGrass. As an engineer and producer, his works have won national and international awards and recognition, including Indie Acoustic Music Project’s Roots Album of the Year, and Chicago Tribune’s Best Bluegrass Records of the Year.

Ivan has taught Dobro at music camps in the US, Canada, and the UK over 100 times including multiple appearances at ResoSummit, Walker Creek Music Camp, Acoustic Music Camp, British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop, and Sore Fingers Summer School. He teaches hundreds of students every year online through Zoom workshops, Patreon, and private lessons.

In the spring of 1999, Luke moved to Nashville to establish himself as a full-time musician. He spent his early years in Tennessee playing fiddle in Ricky Skaggs’ band, Kentucky Thunder, which earned him his first Grammy Award.

Following the Skaggs stint, he became a member of the John Cowan Band. More recently Luke has performed and/or recorded with Brandi Carlile, Jim Lauderdale, Darrell Scott, Alison Krauss, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Edgar Meyer, Bela Fleck, Bryan Sutton, Kevin Costner & Modern West, Russ Barenberg Trio, Shawn Colvin, Tony Rice, Chris Thile, Peter Rowan, Patty Griffin, Glen Phillips, Rodney Crowell, and Earl Scruggs, to name a few. Luke was also a perennial instructor at Mark O’Connor’s fiddle camps in his early Nashville years.

With his long-time friend Casey Driessen, Luke founded the band Wisechild, which toured briefly with John Mayer and Counting Crows. He also had a band collaboration, W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration), which included members Sean Watkins (Nickel Creek, Fiction Family), Glen Phillips (Toad The Wet Sprocket), Sara Watkins (Nickel Creek, I’m With Her), Benmont Tench (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Pete Thomas (Elvis Costello and the Imposters, The Attractions, Los Lobos), Greg Leisz (Joni Mitchell, Wilco, Sheryl Crow, Beck), and Davey Faragher (Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Cracker).

In 2009, Luke released a solo EP featuring Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, Bela Fleck, Aoife O’Donovan and more.

That same year, Lyle Lovett asked Luke to join his Large Band, with whom he toured full time until 2023.

In 2015 Luke co-founded a Bluegrass/Americana record label, Pure Music | Nashville, with music and business executive John L. Heithaus. Luke’s LP, Who Loves You Better, was released by the label in May of 2016. Recorded at Zac Brown’s studio, Southern Ground Nashville, the LP was produced by Grammy winner Bryan Sutton.

Who Loves You Better showcases featured vocal performances by Sharon & Cheryl White, Maura O’Connell, Lee Ann Womack, and Sara Jarosz, complemented by a veritable A-List of Americana’s finest musicians, including: Jerry Douglas, Noam Pikelny, Sam Bush, John Cowan, Sam Grisman, Bryan Sutton and more.

Currently, that means pouring himself into Otherlands: A Global Music Exploration. Produced, performed, recorded and filmed by Driessen, Otherlands is a travelogue of on-location recordings, short films, and essays documenting musical collaborations through Spain, Ireland, Scotland, India, Japan, Finland, Italy, Slovakia, and Czechia. Driessen undertook this nearly year-long journey with his family, and the results are a 30-episode video series, a 13-song recording of collaborations titled Otherlands:ONE, stories from each encounter, and hundreds of photos.

In the fall of 2024, Driessen launched the Blue Ridge Fiddle Camp at the Brevard Music Center in Brevard, North Carolina. For fiddlers & violinists of all styles, this immersive four-day experience celebrates the crafting of one’s musical voice through the exploration of rhythm, technology, and style under the guidance of a world-class faculty. Embracing both tradition and innovation, the camp invites all adventurous and open-minded players of the instrument to come together and shape the future of bowed string playing.

Before setting off on his Otherlands adventure, Driessen spent four years as Program Director of the Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) master’s degree at Berklee College of Music’s first international campus in Valencia, Spain. While working in Valencia, Casey released The Chop Notation Project. Created in partnership with Spanish violinist Oriol Saña, this free resource creates standardized music notation to read and write the percussive bowed string technique known as chopping. Editions are available for violin, viola, and cello and have been translated into Spanish with other languages on the way.

Over the past 24 years, Driessen has released four solo records and toured as a one-man live looping show called The Singularity; collaborated with Béla Fleck, Bassekou Kouyate, Abigail Washburn, Raghu Dixit, Jerry Douglas, Steve Earle and others; produced and engineered records; teched, managed stages, tours, and merch; and travelled the world playing music in 22 countries on four continents and counting…all while wearing red shoes.

Kimber was awarded Mentor of the Year at the 2022 International Bluegrass Music Association Awards. She has been mentoring kids, artists, and up-and-coming bands for quite some time and is the Director of California Bluegrass Association’s Youth Academy, Ashokan Bluegrass Camp, and co-director of IBMA’s Kids on Bluegrass.

While not on tour or running/teaching camps, Kimber can be found in a pottery studio making functional ceramics- many with fiddle and other instrument themes. See her work and music schedule at www.fiddleparty.com.

Uwe started playing guitar at the age of 6 on his father’s instrument, then the Kruger family sang a lot of German folk songs together and music came very naturally to them. The family’s small but fine record collection, including George Lewis, Chet Atkins, Hank Snow, Eddy Arnold, Doc Watson and classical composers such as Beethoven, Bach and Mozart, strongly influenced Uwe’s early years.

His first professional show in 1973 alongside his brother made him dream of a musical life, just playing guitar and singing. In 1979 he became a full-time professional musician.

In 1981 he signed his first recording contract with CBS, singing bluegrass with Jens on banjo and the Galfano Brothers from NY on mandolin and bass. After splitting from his brother in 1982, Uwe began a solo career as a country bandleader and sideman in numerous formations as a singer and electric/acoustic guitarist.

In 1987, the brothers reunited and concentrated on acoustic music with guitar, banjo and bass. Together they signed with Canaris Records and later with K-Tel Recording in England with producer David McKay. As a studio musician, Uwe played electric and acoustic guitar on countless recordings ranging from R&B, country to American folk.

After working for a musical stage production in the early 90’s and hosting the Kruger Brothers very own live music radio show on National Radio DRS, he decided to concentrate his career entirely on the Kruger Brothers path, canceling all other musical obligations.

Since 1997 Uwe has been working as a musician in the USA and moved to the Carolinas in 2002.

Uwe’s book “Travels with Uwe” is a treasure and speaks for itself. Uwe remains a significant figure in the world of music and will continue to inspire musicians and audiences alike.

Avril has performed at top venues and festivals including the Grand Ole Opry (Nashville), the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival (Oak Hill, NY), the Birchmere (Alexandria, VA), Rockygrass (Lyons, CO), the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (Washington, DC), the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Cleveland, OH), and on the south lawn of the White House.

Avril has played with Emmylou Harris, Steve Martin, Pete Seeger, Hazel Dickens, Tom Morello, the Indigo Girls, Billy Strings, Darol Anger, and John Kadlecik, among others.

He has a degree in jazz guitar performance from the University of Utah. When not performing, he teaches private lessons, composes and does session work. His 2019 record, Landmark, showcases his writing ability as well as his seasoned playing. Jake was featured on the cover of the May/June 2015 issue of Flatpicking Guitar Magazine and in 2020 he was awarded the IBMA Bluegrass Guitar Player of the Year.

He began playing mandolin at the age of seven and immediately fell in love with music. He grew up attending bluegrass festivals and fiddler’s conventions near his hometown of Wilkesboro, NC. During his childhood, he got the opportunity to perform with and learn from many established artists such as Sierra Hull, The Steep Canyon Rangers, Sam Bush, The Appalachian State University Big Band, The Krüger Brothers, and more. A particularly notable performance from his childhood was being selected by the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA) Kids on Bluegrass program to perform at the La Roche Bluegrass Festival in the French Alps in 2015 at the age of 13.

As a teenager, Jonah was a founding member of The Trailblazers as a mandolinist (2016-2020). This group was a progressive bluegrass ensemble that went on to win two IBMA Momentum Awards, toured across the eastern US, and released two albums, the most recent of which, Space and Time, he produced and arranged.

In 2021, he graduated from Appalachian State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing with a sales concentration, but he continued to pursue music full-time. That summer at age 19, he traveled to Nashville, TN to be the featured mandolinist on Scott Vestal’s upcoming Bluegrass 2022 instrumental project which featured an all-star cast including Vestal (3x IBMA banjo player of the year), Cody Kilby (Ricky Skaggs, The Travelin’ McCourrys, 1x IBMA Guitar Player of the year), Randy Kohrs (Grammy-winning resonator guitarist), Byron House (Nickel Creek, Dolly Parton), and Tim Crouch (Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks). Bluegrass 2022 received multiple IBMA nominations, including a second-round ballot appearance for Jonah for IBMA mandolin player of the year. In the fall of 2021, Jonah began attending Liberty University to study jazz, and bought his first electric bass that August.

With a quickly growing interest in jazz, funk, and R&B fueled by a summer of playing electric mandolin with The Eli Yacinthe Band, Jonah made the decision to study bass as his primary instrument while pursuing his master’s degree. He quickly picked up the new genre and instrument and was honored to be the featured bassist on acclaimed jazz saxophonist Joseph Henson’s (former Musical Director of the US Army Blues Big Band) 2022 release “A Thousand Words” after only playing bass for ten months. In 2023, he was the featured mandolinist on the Krüger Brothers’ Doc Watson 100th Birthday Celebration which also featured Grammy-Award winning dobro player Jerry Douglas.

Jonah graduated in May of 2024 with a master’s degree in music performance and is plowing full-steam-ahead with his music career. Most recently, he appeared as the featured mandolinist on John Cowan’s (The Doobie Brothers, Newgrass Revival) new album “Fiction”. In the fall of 2024, Jonah got the opportunity to go on a three week tour of Switzerland as a featured artist with the Krüger Brothers and even got to perform two nights with the Swiss National Orchestra. Jonah currently plays with The Krüger Brothers full time, and additionally leads and participates in several side projects. He recorded a solo project in the summer of 2023 titled “Let in the Light” that was released in October of 2024. For more information on this project, see the “Let in the Light” tab on this website.

Throughout middle school and high school, Jacob picked in a bluegrass gospel band with his father. They played festivals and churches throughout the northwestern United States, and became a staple at the Sunday morning gospel shows. During this time he had the opportunity to meet and play with many of his heroes, including Ronnie McCoury, David Grisman, and Chris Thile. Though Jacob was mostly self-taught to this point, lessons with great players such as these kept him inspired and moving forward.

When he was 18, Jacob was awarded a full scholarship to The Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Massachusetts to start school in 2007, along with a lot of the other young musicians he had grown up with. There he studied under the late mandolin great John McGann, who was a huge influence. Under John’s supervision, he spent many six-hour practice days working on a variety of styles from bluegrass to jazz to celtic music. In 2008, during his sophomore year of college, he joined the New England based roots music band, Joy Kills Sorrow. Over the next few years the group toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, playing hundreds of clubs, theaters, and festivals. Because of the group’s rigorous schedule, it was a challenge for him to stay in school, but he still managed to graduate in 2011. Shortly after, in 2012, he won the National Mandolin Championship in Winfield, Kansas.

In 2014, after three records, hundreds of shows, and thousands of miles in a 15 passenger van, Joy Kills Sorrow went on an indefinite hiatus. Fortuitously, as this chapter of Jacob’s musical journey ended, another important one began. Within a couple weeks of the band’s last show, the young mandolinist got a call from the progressive bluegrass jam group, Yonder Mountain String Band. They had parted ways with their original mandolin player and were looking to try out someone new. Jacob went on his first tour with YMSB in June of that year. He immediately connected musically and personally with the band, and shortly after he became a full-time member. Jacob played with Yonder until the end of 2019, releasing three albums with the group.

Now in 2023, the mandolinist’s main focus is The Jacob Jolliff Band. This ensemble is a group of virtuosic pickers that play Jacob’s original instrumentals, as well as showcase his singing. They tour nationally in the US and have also travelled to Scotland and Australia to perform. The group has released two albums, “Instrumentals Vol. 1” in 2018 and “The Jacob Jolliff Band” in 2022.

In 2022, Jacob was called on by world famous banjo player, Béla Fleck, to tour as part of My Bluegrass Heart. He performed around the country alongside Béla and some of the very best musicians in the genre: Bryan Sutton, Cody Kilby, Justin Moses, Mark Schatz, Michael Cleveland, Stuart Duncan and Billy Contreras.

Living in Nashville since 1996, O’Brien’s skills on guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo make him an in-demand session player. The International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awarded him song of the year in 2006 and named him best male vocalist in 1993 and 2006. He was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and with Hot Rize, into the Colorado Music Hall of Fame in 2022, and the IBMA Hall of Fame in 2025.

Recent releases He Walked On and Cup of Sugar wove stories of everyday life into socially conscious themes. Paper Flowers, his 2025 duet release with Jan Fabricius narrated the couple’s life together. Other notable O’Brien recordings include the bluegrass Dylan covers of Red on Blonde, the Celtic-Appalachian fusion of The Crossing, and the Grammy winning folk of Fiddler’s Green. His duet with Darrell Scott, Real Time, is a cult favorite, and he won a bluegrass Grammy as part of The Earls of Leicester. The Tim O’Brien Songbook, coming in May of 2026, collects forty originals from his fifty plus years on the scene.

The Onlies have released an EP and four full-length albums, and performed on stages at the Father’s Day Bluegrass Festival, Pickathon, Berkeley Old-Time Music Convention, AmericanaFest, and the Portland Old-Time Gathering. In 2017, The Onlies won first place at the Clifftop Appalachian String Band festival’s prestigious Traditional Band Contest and returned to perform there in 2018. In Asheville, NC they recorded an album, “The Ruglifters,” with old-time music heroes John Herrmann and Meredith McIntosh, released in 2018. That group won first place in Clifftop’s 2019 Traditional Band Contest. They are now the co-artistic directors of Fiddle Tunes festival in Port Townsend, WA.

Sami is a buoyant, intuitive, and versatile fiddler who values deep understanding of the stories behind the tunes and seeks inspiration from historically marginalized artists. She most frequently plays in the Old-Time, Cape Breton, and Bluegrass styles, but her enthusiasm extends in many directions, including Irish, Scandinavian, Scottish, and jazz. At Whitman College, where she graduated in 2020 in music and English, Sami presented a senior honors recital that tracked the origins of folk melodies across both classical violin compositions and fiddle tunes. Upon graduation she was awarded the Vinson Award for music excellence.

Sami now teaches and performs across the U.S., primarily with The Onlies and Willie Watson (David Rawlings Machine, Old Crow Medicine Show). She and Willie just wrapped up a run opening up for Alison Krauss and Union Station on their Summer 2025 Arcadia tour. In previous years, Sami has appeared onstage alongside Watchhouse, Laurie Lewis, Bruce Molsky, Elvis Costello, Darol Anger, Critter Eldridge, Cahalen Morrison, Eli West, Pharis & Jason Romero, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Altan. She has performed at festivals like MerleFest, Freshgrass, and Bristol Rhythm & Roots. In her tune-writing, Sami melds creativity with tradition, producing a number of old-time tunes which have made their way into festival sessions across the country. In her teaching, she brings positive engagement and a high standard that encourages and challenges students. Sami recently moved to Nashville, TN, to pursue music full-time. To all her projects Sami brings joyful energy, a driving bow, and an abiding love for the traditional music community which formed her.

www.samibraman.com

In addition to The Onlies, Riley performs with Vivian Leva as Viv & Riley. Together they have toured across Canada, the US, and the UK and performed at festivals such as Pickathon and Wintergrass. Vivian’s record Time Is Everything (feat. Riley Calcagno) has received wide critical praise since its release in early 2018. Rolling Stone Country wrote that it “shines a light on the past without giving up its place in the present” and Wide Open Country called the record “a triumph of lyricism and musicianship.”

As a classical player, Calcagno has performed alongside Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony as Concertmaster and performed in master classes for Joel Krosnick and Richard Aaron. He was a member of Seattle’s new music ensemble Scrape, founded by James Knapp, Eyvind Kang, and Bill Frisell. He is a graduate from Oberlin College & Conservatory.

Riley has performed with Elvis Costello, Rhiannon Giddens, Darol Anger, Bruce Molsky, the Seattle Symphony, Altan, Laurie Lewis, Tristan and Tashina Clarridge, Dirk Powell, and John Herrmann. He was selected to be a participant at the prestigious 2018 Acoustic Music Seminar in Savannah, Georgia run by Mike Marshall. Riley has taught at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, Nimblefingers Old time and Bluegrass Workshops, Big Sur Fiddle Camp, Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, and Colorado Rockies Old-Time Festival (CROMA).

Educated in Anthropology and Community Development at the University of Vermont, Celia received her true musical education on the road. After graduating, she traveled along American highways with her first project, Avi & Celia, honing her craft through relentless performing.

In the last 20 years, she has recorded 12 albums—including a solo release—and become the lead vocalist and primary songwriter for the acclaimed all-female string band Della Mae. With Della Mae, she has earned a GRAMMY nomination, an IBMA award, played iconic stages around the world, and helped redefine the boundaries of modern roots music. In collaboration with American Music Abroad and the US Department of State, the women of Della Mae have also performed as cultural ambassadors in over 20 countries such as Pakistan, Guyana, Peru, Jordan, Bangladesh, the Marshall Islands and Kazakhstan.

A fixture of the New England roots scene, Celia fronts the Boston-based rock and roll band Say Darling and performs with Hickman, Anick & Woodsmith, which sounds suspiciously like a law firm, but is actually a trio of veteran Americana, Jazz and Blues performers.

In addition to touring, writing and performing, she is a fierce advocate and mentor for women of any age who want to explore their place and power in music.

Whether she’s playing guitar, washboard, or delivering a heart-rending vocal, Celia Woodsmith performs with fearless authenticity. Her writing and performing is both a tribute to tradition and an honest and powerful step forward.

She currently lives in Kittery, Maine with her husband and a flock of chickens.

Daves’ most recent project is a two-album set, Orchids and Violence on Nonesuch Records. Both discs are produced by Daves and have identical track listing of mostly traditional bluegrass songs. The first features straightforward interpretations of them and was recorded live to tape in a 19th-century church by Daves and a band of roots-music innovators: bassist Mike Bub, fiddler Brittany Haas, mandolinist Sarah Jarosz, and banjo player Noam Pikelny. The second disc was recorded in Daves’ home studio and includes drums and electric instruments, mostly played by Daves, taking a raw, experimental rock approach to the same old-time material. “The identical track listing makes for a good comparison study,” says the New York Times music critic Nate Chinen in his review, “and to his credit, it can be hard to pick which version of a tune is best.”

Daves previously recorded bluegrass standards on Sleep with One Eye Open, his Nonesuch debut, a duo session with mandolinist Chris Thile (Punch Brothers, Nickel Creek) that earned the pair a 2011 Grammy nomination.

Although he is best known as a roots musician, Daves gravitated toward experimental music and jazz while studying at Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Relocating to Brooklyn in 2003, he began to crave the social interaction and musical challenges of bluegrass: “In Western Massachusetts, I was mostly doing jazz. By the time I moved to New York, I was ready to leave that behind, get back to my personal roots in bluegrass music. There were good jam sessions in New York and I was excited to reenter a regular jamming culture in the city. And I was getting back into rock music, too. The Brooklyn scene in 2003 and 2004 was pretty fertile. There was a lot of great, kind of raw, experimental rock music happening at that time, drawing me in, scratching an itch.”

Daves is also devoted teacher with over twenty-five years of experience whose instructional style is aimed at helping students develop and refine their own natural musical sensibilities while exploring a wealth of American roots traditions, particularly bluegrass. In 2016 he launched an online school in bluegrass vocals on ArtistWorks.com where he helps students around the world learn the intricacies of the bluegrass singing style as well as harmony singing and ear training.

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 performed with some of Colorado’s most talented acts, began teaching at Bluegrass Camps for kids and became a founding member of the genre-bending bluegrass group, The Railsplitters.

Playing in The Railsplitters led her to leave teaching and perform full-time in 2015, providing exciting touring opportunities across the United States, Canada, and overseas to Europe. Two years later, she parted from The Railsplitters to pursue teaching K-12 music abroad in China and Japan. She now lives in Shanghai, China, where she is the director of middle school orchestras at Shanghai American School.

Leslie brings a dynamic and engaging teaching style to her work with young musicians. Drawing from her diverse background in both classical and folk traditions, she creates an inclusive environment where students can develop strong technical foundations while discovering the joy of making music together.

Justin has been performing in bluegrass bands professionally since he was 13 years old. While a senior in high school, Justin helped form Long Road Home, mainstay of the Colorado bluegrass scene to this day. His current project, Jake Leg, is currently touring and preparing to release this debut album this summer. You might even catch him on radio stations across the country as a guest eTone on the eTown radio show (where he appeared with such acts as the Indigo Girls, Tim O’Brien, Graham Nash, Big Al Anderson and the North Mississippi All Stars).

Dominick has been involved with many outstanding projects over the years including The Deadly Gentlemen, The Grant Gordy Quartet, Missy Raines and the New Hip, The Bee Eaters, Noam Pikelny & Friends, Hawktail, Sam Reider and the Human Hands, Phoebe Hunt and the Gatherers and several other spontaneous groups. Currently he can be seen performing with Nashville based Grammy winning group Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway and The Sam Grisman Project.

Like Dominick Leslie, this will be Murph’s 22nd year in a row at Rockygrass. “It doesn’t matter where in the world you might find yourself, once you go to Rockygrass…you have to be there every year!” he proclaims. MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Chris Thile says about Brad Murphey: “a great lead guitarist….. and awesome rhythm player too!”

Near the end of his study at MIA, Marcus traveled to Los Angeles, CA to attend the National Association of Musical Merchants show with instructors from the Academy.

While attending the show, Marcus requested of Santa Cruz Guitar Company production manager Daniel Roberts, to be accepted to come and do a 3 month apprenticeship. After being accepted and receiving a visa, Marcus came and studied with Dan, first for 3 months, then later, worked side by side with Dan at the SCGC repair and R&D facility for another two years.

Next Marcus moved to Bozeman, MT and worked for Music Villa doing their repair and new instrument setups for a number of years. When finally opening his own shop in Bozeman, Marcus became the Martin warranty repairman for the area and continued to do repair for Music Villa as well as having developed a personal client list of discriminating top tier players. Marcus’ career as an instrument builder and repairman is only limited by his time spent playing in multiple bands in the Bozeman area.

After some time at Gibson, Dan realized that his real interest was building custom guitars and so sometime around 1990 he accepted a position as production manager with the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. SCGC was small enough that Dan would be able to work building guitars, build the SCGC archtops, do some of the repair, and do design and tooling as well as his management duties so it was a perfect fit. Dan worked with owner Richard Hoover and SCGC for almost 18 years, working with the likes of Chris Hillman, Herb Pedersen, David Crosby, Janis Ian, Tony Rice, Norman Blake and many more before leaving in 2008, after 25 years in the industry, to start his own Company, Daniel Roberts Stringworks.

Since starting his own company about 13 years ago,Dan had a constant flow of repair as well as new builds. Since 2009 Dan has built Guitars for Dave Stewart, Brian May, Waddy Wachtel, John Jorgenson, Eric Clapton, Ronnie Wood, Brent Mason, Don Everly, Joe Walsh, Stevie Nicks, David Frizzell, Sonny Curtis, Vince Gill, Amy Grant. He is currently building for TBone Burnett,Carlos Santana, Kevin Kastning, as well as countless other wonderful musicians. Dan loves to build instruments and has had many apprentices through the years. He really enjoys sharing his talents with the builders every year at Rockygrass!

Scherer relocated to Louisville Colorado in 2018 where he opened Scherer Violin Shop. He provides high quality student and professional stringed instruments, accessories, repairs and rentals. During the week of RockyGrass Academy, Will is available for gluing seams, cracks or damage due to weather, bow re-hairs, setup work including carving bridges, sound posts and peg or tuner adjustments. He also comes stocked with strings, accessories and instruments for sale during the week. Will loves the process of making every instrument sound its best and enjoys helping players of all levels at RockyGrass each year.