Instructors
Instructors
Instructors
Old Time Track
Clawhammer Banjo & Old Time Fiddle
Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves have been described as “one living, breathing organism”(Bandcamp Daily), with their music “transform[ing] the listener to a different plane” (No Depression). Their sound together captivates listeners through intricate and interactive dynamics between the banjo and the fiddle. They are individually recognized as leaders in the young generation of roots musicians, de Groot being known for intricate clawhammer banjo work with Bruce Molsky, and Hargreaves bringing powerhouse fiddling to the stage with Laurie Lewis and David Rawlings in addition to teaching bluegrass fiddle at UNC-Chapel Hill. The duo’s 2022 sophomore album, Hurricane Clarice reflects history, family, literature, live performance, and environmental instability in the sounds, feelings, and sensations that permeate their music. The album won “Best Instrumental Group of the Year” and “Best Traditional Album of the Year” from the Canadian Folk Music Awards and also received a Juno nomination for “Traditional Roots Album of the Year.”
Their first self-titled album released in 2019 garnered attention from CBC Q, Paste Magazine and Rolling Stone Country, earning the duo the Independent Music Awards “Best Bluegrass Album” and a nomination from IBMA for “Best Liner Notes of the Year.” The duo has performed at festivals and venues such as Newport Folk Festival, Savannah Music Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, the Red Hat Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC, and Red Wing Roots Music Festival. Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves create a sound that is adventurous, masterful, and original, as they expand on the eccentricities of old songs, while never losing sight of what makes them endure.
Banjo
Ned Luberecki
Becky Buller Band
Steve Martin describes Ned Luberecki’s playing as “an absolutely joyous, riveting, beautifully syncopated example of the beauty of the banjo.”Banjoist for the Becky Buller Band and host of More Banjo Sunday and Derailed on SiriusXM Satellite Radio’s Bluegrass Junction, Ned Luberecki is a 2024 inductee into the Banjo Hall of Fame, was named Banjo Player of the Year in 2018 and Broadcaster of the Year in 2023 by the IBMA. Ned is the author of the Complete Banjo Method series for Alfred Music and has numerous lesson videos available at TrueFire.com.
Living in Nashville, TN, he is an in-demand performer and session musician having appeared on stage and recordings with Becky Buller, Chris Jones, Jim Lauderdale, Ray Stevens, Nedski & Mojo and many others. Ned is a popular instructor at music camps and workshops across the US, Canada and Europe including Camp Bluegrass, RockyGrass Academy, Kaufman Acoustic Kamp, Sore Fingers (UK) and Bluegrass Camp Germany. His website is nedski.com.
Charlie Rose
Banjo, etc.
Charlie Rose is a highly respected and accomplished musician, producer, and songwriter with a career spanning over two decades. Born and raised in eastern Kansas, Charlie’s passion for music began as a student of voice, piano, trombone, and guitar. He quickly added bass, mandolin, and banjo to his repertoire, and after completing his science degree, he made the decision to pursue a career in music. Charlie’s extensive experience playing with many artists and bands on various instruments, including pedal steel, banjo, guitar, horns, percussion, strings, bass, and keys, has earned him a reputation as a highly versatile musician.
He has worked with a diverse range of artists, from Elephant Revival and Asylum Street Spankers to Sarah Lee Guthrie, Johnny Irion, Johnathan Edwards, The Crooked Jades, The Mammals, Emma Rose, Amy Helm, Wayne Gottstine, Colin Mahoney, Kirk Rundstrom, Danny Barnes, Peter Rowan, Julian Lage, Kimber Ludiker, Gina Leslie, Cactus Pals, Andy Reiner, Joy Adams, Eric Thorin, Della Mae, KC Groves, Uncle Earl, Zachariah Hickman, Barnstar!, Vince Herman, Jeff Tweedy, Lindsay Lou, Pat Sansone, Bruce Kaphan, Sam Kassirer, Rose Cousins, John Mailander, Molly Tuttle, Darol Anger, and many more amazingly talented producers and musicians.
In addition to his instrumental prowess, Charlie is a prolific songwriter and producing recording engineer with his own studio in Lyons, CO. With his talent, versatility, and passion for music, Charlie continues to be an active and integral part of the music he participates in, both as a performer and behind-the-scenes.
Andy Thorn
Leftover Salmon
Andy Thorn is a banjoist, singer, and songwriter who has been a member of the pioneering jam band Leftover Salmon for over 14 years. He first picked up the banjo when he was twelve years old, after discovering one at a neighbor’s yard sale in Durham, NC. While obtaining a degree in music at UNC-Chapel Hill, he spent his summers driving out to Colorado to explore new musical worlds with his bluegrass buddies. On one of these trips, he won the Rockygrass contest in two categories (both as a solo banjo player, and with his friends in the Broke Mountain Bluegrass Band).
When he was offered a position in the Emmitt-Nershi Band, he jumped at the chance to join some of his musical heroes and move to Colorado full-time. Today, Andy tours the country with Leftover Salmon and posts viral videos from his high-altitude Colorado backyard. Thanks to social media, he has become known internationally as “that guy who plays banjo to a fox.”
Bass
Sam Grisman
Sam Grisman Project
The music that Sam Grisman heard his father David Grisman and Jerry Garcia make in the early ’90s in the house Sam grew up in (the simply titled “Jerry Garcia & David Grisman,” as just one example) is not only some of the most timeless acoustic music ever recorded, it also triggers his oldest and fondest musical memories. Sam is inspired by how much camaraderie, love, and joy is simply oozing out of his father and his best friend, but also how deeply they get underneath their favorite songs (originals, covers, and traditional/old-time tunes) and how expertly that material was curated.
Sam’s aim in starting Sam Grisman Project is to build a container where he and his friends can showcase their genuine love and appreciation for the legacy of Dawg and Jerry’s music, the impact it has made on their own individual musical voices, and also to showcase the original music that their squad has to offer the world.
Now, in a team-up with longtime family friend Peter Rowan, Sam and the band will be bringing the music of legendary bluegrass outfit Old and in the Way to the stage for select performances in 2025 and beyond!
Aidan O’Donnell
Mr Sun
Aidan O’Donnell hails from Glasgow, Scotland. He completed a BA in jazz performance at Birmingham Conservatoire, where he won the prize for Most Promising Performer and was made an Honorary Fellow. Thereafter he moved to London, where he quickly became one of the most in-demand bassists on the scene. In 2008, with the aid of a grant from the Scottish Arts Council, he relocated to New York. Since then he has established himself as a much sought-after bassist, working with such notable musicians as Steve Kuhn, Ben Monder, David Berkman, Darol Anger, Maeve Gilchrist and many more. In addition to this he took his MA in jazz performance at City College, where he studied with John Patitucci.
Erin Youngberg
FY5
Erin Youngberg (you can call her “E”) – Started playing bluegrass bass at age 12 playing bar gigs and weddings in Wyoming with her banjo-pickin’ Dad until she joined a band in her college years that got pretty serious about performing, touring and recording. In the last 20-some years she has been exploring genres other than bluegrass (Old Time, Honky Tonk, Rockabilly, Folk-grass, Jam-grass) and performed with several bands in the studio, at festivals, and across the country.
Now she and her husband, Aaron Youngberg live and operate a recording studio in Fort Collins and are in their 15th year of performing in the band FY5 with some of their very best friends in the whole world. Erin has been teaching bass at workshops and camps for the past 15 years, and loves to spread the Zen of Bluegrass Bass love! She is a mother to 2 awesome daughters, loves to talk about birds, and can frequently be seen running up mountains in the wee hours of the morning.
Dobro
Abbie Gardner
Best known as a founding member of Americana harmony trio Red Molly, Abbie Gardner is a joyful dobro player and singer/songwriter with an infectious smile. She’s released seven records with Red Molly and five on her own. Her latest record DobroSinger (2022) features her unique style of unaccompanied solo dobro and vocals and hit #11 on the Billboard Charts, just below Derrick Trucks. As an award-winning songwriter who has written with Chris Stapleton, Will Kimbrough, and David Olney, Abbie’s blazing a new path with the dobro as a singer-songwriter instrument.
You can hear her featured on Phil Leadbetter’s Masters of Slide CD and she was also in the IBMA Songwriter Showcase (2021 & 2024). Teaching takes a very special place in her heart. She’s taught at ResoSummit, Rockygrass Academy, Kaufman Camp, Nashville Dobro Camp, Colorado Roots Camp, Moab Folk Camp, New England Songwriters Retreat, SummerSongs and Swannanoa Gathering. Whether at a camp or with her Woodshed videos on YouTube, Abbie gets really excited to fan the flames of other people’s creativity.
abbiegardner.com
Billboard Charting Artist
Tod Livingston
Tod Patrick Livingston has been playing, teaching and touring professionally for over 20 years and has shared stages with some of the greatest names on the circuit including Earl Scruggs, Jim Lauderdale, Missy Raines, Tim O’Brien, Bryan Sutton, Matt Flinner, Sam Grisman Project, Henhouse Prowlers and many others. He also had the opportunity to travel and play in 30 countries all over the world as part of the American Musicians Abroad Program.
Whilst growing up as a musician with the traditional Bluegrass repertoire, he has never been afraid of stepping out of the Bluegrass box. Recently he played on a very popular video game ( he is sworn to secrecy until it comes out in the fall of 2025) and also spent six months with an off Broadway production at the Signature theatre on a play “A Particle of Dread” written by Sam Shepherd.
Tod’s enthusiasm for the Dobro and music is infectious and there’s nothing he likes more than playing, teaching, or talking about the resophonic guitar. You can tell because he’s always smiling. Keep an eye out for his first solo record set to drop in 2025.
Fiddle
Darol Anger
Mr. Sun, Berklee College of Music, Artistworks
One of the most influential fiddlers alive, Darol Anger works with string teachers, professionals and students of all ages in school, university, camp and festival settings, growing interest in improvising and vernacular strings. He has helped drive the evolution of the contemporary string band through involvement with numerous ensembles such as Mr Sun with fellow virtuosos Grant Gordy, Aidan O’Donnell and Joe K.Walsh, his Republic Of Strings, The Turtle Island String Quartet, The David Grisman Quintet, The Montreux Band, The Anger-Marshall Duo and others.
In addition to performing all over the world since 1977, he has recorded and produced many important recordings, a featured soloist on many recordings and soundtrack, is a MacDowell and UCross Fellow, and has received numerous composer residencies and grants.
Anger is Professor Emeritus at Berklee College of Music, operates his innovative online Fiddle School at Artistworks.com, and spent 1984-1995 doing international touring and jazz string clinics with his Turtle Island String Quartet.
He received a 2020 International Bluegrass Music Association Award for Distinguished Achievement, and a 2023 American String Teachers’ Artist Teacher Award for his mentorship and support of young string musicians over the last 30 years.
He held the string chair of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE) , and was a founding member of IAJE’s String Caucus. He has been a contributing editor for Strings Magazine and a member of the Editorial Board of the American String Teacher’s Association (ASTA), with fifteen-plus years of presentations, clinics and performances delivered at ASTA and MENC conventions. He brings over 40 years of experience to teaching and residencies at countless music festivals and string camps in jazz, blues, bluegrass, chamber and orchestra settings. International workshops and clinics include Campo Do Jordao in Brazil, the Music Conservatories at Bremen, Germany and Copenhagen, and the Royal Academy Of Music in Stockholm.
Darol Anger has a passion for intergenerational education and performance as a way to bridge imaginary borders of age and culture. He envisions a great nation of string players, embodied by The Republic of Strings: a floating intergenerational orchestra that plays music scooped from backyards, garages and kitchens in every continent. Darol is committed to promoting appreciation of musical diversity and the evolution of personal musical styles based on strong cultural roots throughout the world. His website is www.darolanger.com
Becky Buller
Becky Buller Band
Becky Buller is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter from St. James, Minn., who has traversed the globe over performing bluegrass music to underwrite her insatiable songwriting habit. She has written songs for three Grammy-winning albums by Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, The Travelin’ McCourys, and The Infamous Stringdusters. Her compositions can also be heard on records by Ricky Skaggs, Rhonda Vincent and Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, to name just a few.
Becky is the recipient of 10 International Bluegrass Music Association awards, including the 2015 Songwriter Of The Year.
Her new album, Jubilee, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Bluegrass Album Chart for the week of June 1st, 2024. It features her brilliant road band along with special guest and co-writer Aoife O’Donovan. Jubilee is a song cycle that shares the story of Becky’s lifelong struggle with depression and anxiety, how it reached a crisis point during the pandemic years, and how she made it to the other side.
In April 2023, Becky was inducted into the Minnesota Music Hall Of Fame. Equally passionate about bluegrass music education, Becky has over 20 years experience teaching fiddle, singing, and songwriting, both privately and at workshops and camps around the world. She currently serves on the board of the IBMA Foundation, which awards $50,000 annually in scholarships and grants to spread the word about bluegrass music and support those who create it.Becky proudly calls Manchester, Tenn., her adopted hometown, where she lives with husband and daughter. Visit her online at BeckyBuller.com.
Jeremy Garrett
Infamous Stringdusters
Jeremy Garrett has been playing music since he first picked up the fiddle at the age of three, encouraged by his father, a guitarist steeped in Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys and its guitar/banjo duo of Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs. The two formed a band together, the Grasshoppers, and that helped launch Jeremy’s 45-year – and counting — career as a musician.
Born in California, Garrett grew up in Idaho, before moving to Nashville in 1998, co-founding the Infamous Stringdusters.
When a musician friend, dobro player Andy Hall, approached his bandmate in a group named the Ronnie Bowman Committee (along with ex-mandolin player Jesse Cobb) to join forces with his Berklee College of Music classmates, banjo player Chris Pandolfi and former guitarist Chris Eldridge, the group’s first iteration was formed in 2005.
The band’s current lineup includes double-bassist Travis Book, who came aboard in 2005, and guitarist Andy Falco, who replaced Eldridge in 2007.Since that time, the Stringdusters have garnered a Grammy Award in 2018 for Best Bluegrass Album (Laws of Gravity) and two nominations, the most recent in 2022 in the same category (A Tribute to Bill Monroe).
Since that time, Garrett has released seven solo albums, with his latest, Storm Mountain, his first since 2022’s well-received River Wild. Now living “off the grid” in a cabin on 12 acres with his wife and eight-year-old daughter in a remote section of Theodore Roosevelt National Forest outside of Drake, Colorado, Garrett recorded the album in a one-room studio outside of Fort Collins, CO, at the foothills of the mountains, before he added his parts at his own Storm Mountain home studio.
“This is not a light-hearted record,” he explained. “Bluegrass is a lonesome music. I wanted this album to be more sophisticated than songs about trains and biscuits, to bring out the deeper content.”
With groups like Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident and current phenom Billy Strings updating bluegrass for a new generation of listeners as “jamgrass,” the genre has exploded. Jeremy Garrett, known to the Infamous Stringdusters’ loyal fan base as either G-Grass or Freedom Cobra for his dynamic stage presence, has been at the forefront of the revival.
“Bluegrass is a durable music,” he said.” It’s been around for a long time. It’s down home and hardy and you can play it anywhere. You don’t even need electricity. The Dusters are a traditional bluegrass band that brought in the elements of extended soloing into the mix.”
Storm Mountain deals with such serious topics as a fall from grace (“Son of Perdition”), the bitterness of fate (“The Cold Hard Truth”), lost love (“Fly Away”), the meaning of life (“Anchor in the Deep”) and hopes for his daughter (“You’re Gonna Fly”). In addition, there are playful stabs at modern phenomena from social conventions (“Don’t Ask’) to UFOs (“Rosewell”).
“I love weird stuff like that,” he laughed. “I study quantum physics, too.”
Other highlights include surprising, idiosyncratic covers of songs by Mr. Mister’s Richard Page (“The Border”) and U.K. classic rock band Free (“Fire and Water”).
“I’m interested in World Music and how the fiddle has been played around the globe,” said Garrett, whose previous albums have explored a wide range of fiddle effects, including loops and pedals, showing the instrument can be as eclectic as the guitar. “It’s been integrated in all forms of music as one of the most versatile instruments on the planet. There’s something about fiddle players that’s unique.”
Garrettt’s collaborators on the record included banjo player Ryan Cavanagh (“a picker’s picker”), guitarist Chris Luquette, singer Lindsay Lou (“The Border,” “You’re Gonna Fly,” “Son of Perdition”), songwriting partner Josh Shilling, fiddle players Luke Bulla and Casey Driessen (“Rosewell”), bassist Travis Anderson, tenor vocalist Ray Cardwell (“Slow Train”) and Stringdusters colleague Andy Hall on Resophonic guitar/dobro (“You’re Gonna Fly”).
“I wanted to draw on something a little different than what I do with the ‘Dusters, by touching on my more traditional lineage in gospel, country and blues. These are songs that don’t quite fit in with the crowds we usually play for. When I go back to the band, I’m way better and more fulfilled for having done these solo records.”
At 48 years old, Garrett is relatively young for a bluegrass veteran and looks forward to performing his music live for audiences. “When I write songs now, it’s from the standpoint of someone who’s been through some life experiences over the past 20 years. My goal is for this record to be uplifting at the same time as it’s more reflective in terms of healing.
“You need to have the music serve the song first and foremost, but I still throw down the fiddle because that’s what people expect.”
With the Dusters about to celebrate their 20th anniversary next year with a new album, Garrett looks forward to finding time for the occasional solo performance along with his “day job.”
His ultimate inspiration are guys like Larry Sparks (“Slow Train” on the new album is a tribute to him), Del McCoury and the late Ralph Stanley, who have performed into their 70s, 80s and 90s.
“I want to play this music forever,” said Jeremy. With Storm Mountain, he continues on that path.
Guitar
Tyler Grant
Tyler Grant
National Flatpicking Champion Tyler Grant is an internationally recognized guitarist, songwriter, vocalist and leader of the band Grant Farm® (currently on hiatus). His latest album, Flatpicker (Released March, 2025), is a testament to the time spent outdoors post-pandemic, and the longing for home that comes with time in the Wild. Tyler has appeared at most major US festivals and performed thousands of concerts and guitar workshops worldwide. He was an original member of the Emmitt-Nershi Band and was a sideman for Abigail Washburn, April Verch and Adrienne Young.
He has produced six solo albums and six releases by Grant Farm on his own Grant Central Records. His 2018 collaborative release, Kanawha County Flatpicking, reached #14 on the US Folk DJ chart.
The latest Grant Farm album, Broke In Two, released June 2019, is an ambitious concept album which furthers the stories of characters and archetypes introduced on the previous release, Kiss The Ground. Tyler was also host of the Meeting on the Mountain® LIVE Broadcast, a radio-style musical program based in Fort Collins, CO, from 2015-2018.
The “Great Pause” of 2020 brought Tyler back to the outdoors, where he became involved as an entertainer and raft guide on RiverWonderGrass Expeditions through Adrift Adventures Dinosaur on the Green and Yampa Rivers in Dinosaur National Monument. Outdoor leadership has blended well with his musical endeavors, and River Life has permeated his music.
In addition to the National Flatpicking Championship at Winfield in 2008 and Merlefest Doc Watson Guitar Championship in 2009, Tyler has also won the Rockygrass, Wayne Henderson, and the New England Flatpicking Championships. He has been featured in Acoustic Guitar, Flatpicking Guitar, Fretboard Journal and Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine. Tyler has been an instructor at CalArts, Kaufman Kamp, Rockygrass Academy, Sore Fingers UK, Augusta Heritage Center Bluegrass Week, Grand Targhee Bluegrass Camp, Julian Family Fiddle Camp, Nimblefingers, and St. Louis Flatpick among others. Tyler’s Flatpicking Academy on ArtistWorks.com is his primary instructional site, and he is also a regular contributor to online guitar instruction sites Jamplay.com & Truefire.com.
When he is indoors, Tyler hosts a Monday Night Playalong Bluegrass Jam for all levels on his Youtube channel.
Grant Gordy
Mr Sun
“An exciting young player who, despite a plethora of influences, now sounds like nobody but himself.” - Fretboard Journal
For many guitarists, landing a gig with bluegrass mandolinist David Grisman’s groundbreaking bluegrass/jazz quintet would be the culmination of a career in music. But for Grant Gordy, it was more of a beginning, an apprenticeship in combining bluegrass and jazz that served as a launchpad for his own music.
The New York City based guitarist and educator has emerged as a major voice on the American ‘acoustic music’ scene, and become one of the most highly-regarded young instrumentalists of his generation, performing in various capacities all over North America, Europe and in India.
His music has been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered and Tiny Desk Concerts and he’s received attention from numerous international music periodicals like Jazz Guitar Today and Acoustic Guitar Magazine, both of whom featured Gordy as the cover story for their respective March/April 2023 issues.
In addition to freelancing as a soloist and collaborator in New York City as an acoustic guitarist, and on electric in the city’s thriving jazz scene, Grant’s current bands include Mr Sun, a collaborative acoustic supergroup of sorts with Darol Anger (violin), Joe K. Walsh (mandolin) and Aidan O’Donnell (bass), a duo with guitarist Ross Martin – their debut, Year of the Dog was released in 2016 – and his own Quartet featuring prodigious acoustic talents Alex Hargreaves (violin) and Dominick Leslie (mandolin).
Rebecca Frazier
Rebecca Frazier, Hit & Run
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” by The Nashville Scene. The Virginia native was later picked up by Compass Records for her flatpicking/songwriting solo showcase When We Fall, which was called “the best bluegrass album of 2013” by Henry Carrigan of The Bluegrass Situation and peaked at #3 on the national Roots Music Report Chart.
Frazier’s bond with GRAMMY-winning producer Bill Wolf, known for working with Tony Rice and Grateful Dead, was the catalyst for the significant caliber of musicianship on her follow-up album, Boarding Windows in Paradise, which debuted at #4 on Bluegrass Billboard Charts and was dubbed a Top Ten Americana album of 2024 by No Depression. Frazier collaborated with bluegrass icons Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Stuart Duncan, Barry Bales, Ron Block, and Byron House to create a flagship album of sheer originality.
A bluegrass luminary herself, Frazier became the first woman to earn a Guitar Performer of the Year nomination from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America in 2018, an honor she received again in 2019. Paste Magazine deemed Frazier one of “Seven Women Smashing the Bluegrass Glass Ceiling” in 2017. Other honors include Frazier’s featured appearance singing and playing “Keep on the Sunnyside” on Hank Williams’ biopic, the 20th Century Fox The Last Ride movie soundtrack released by Curb Records in 2012, and Frazier’s 2009 IBMA Recorded Event of the Year award for her work on the Daughters of Bluegrass’ Bluegrass Bouquet. Frazier is widely known for her work with Colorado-based outfit Hit & Run, the only band to score the bluegrass-world trifecta of winning Rockygrass, Telluride and SPBGMA festival band competitions. Dubbed “East Nashville real deal bluegrass” by journalist Craig Havighurst, Frazier has toured throughout 42 states and Canada since 2002. She earned a B.A. in Music from the University of Michigan and studied guitar at Berklee College of Music. She has taught workshops across the U.S. and Canada since 2005, and was on staff at Nashville Music Academy from 2008 to 2021.
GRAMMY-winning banjoist and producer Alison Brown notes, “Rebecca Frazier is an important voice among the group of women whose musical talents and creative visions are recasting bluegrass. A triple threat, she sings, plays, and writes with fire and grace, and her new album, Boarding Windows in Paradise, is not to be missed.”
Eric Wiggs
Jake Leg
Eric Wiggs is an acclaimed guitarist, vocalist, and educator, celebrated for his versatility and deep connection to the traditions of Americana, bluegrass, and jazz. Based in Lyons, Colorado, Eric has established himself as a standout in the acoustic music world, blending technical mastery with emotive, melodic phrasing. Bryan Sutton describes him as having “a serious level of command of the instrument and unmistakable artistry,” while Chris Eldridge praises his “wide range of influences integrated into a sophisticated musical identity.”
Eric’s musical journey began in Alabama, where he developed a passion for guitar, first honing his craft on the electric guitar. He holds a B.M. in Jazz Studies & Music Media from the University of Alabama and a M.M. in Jazz Studies/Pedagogy from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
With over 20 years of teaching experience, Eric has worked with students of all ages and skill levels, from private instruction to college classrooms. Eric’s current project, Jake Leg, has quickly emerged as a standout in the bluegrass scene, earning national recognition for their fresh take on progressive acoustic music. Since forming in 2021, the band has been named a 2023 IBMA Official Showcase Artist, a 2024 nominee for IBMA Momentum Band of the Year, and was listed as one of Denver Westword’s “Top 10 Colorado Bluegrass Bands.”
Their debut album, Fire on the Prairie, released in May 2024, showcases their innovative sound and dynamic musicianship, further solidifying their reputation as rising stars in the genre. In addition to his work as a performer and sideman, Eric is a sought-after recording engineer known for his meticulous attention to detail and ability to capture the nuances of acoustic instruments. Focusing on bluegrass, Americana, and jazz, his work has earned praise for its clarity and warmth. Eric has engineered, mixed, and produced albums for emerging bluegrass bands, solo artists, and ensembles, including Big Richard, Jake Eddy, Willi Carlisle, The Fretliners, and many others. Renowned engineer Billy Wolf (Tony Rice, David Grisman) has praised his work, stating, “These mixes are audiophile quality,” underscoring the exceptional standards Eric brings to every project. Whether in the studio or on stage, Eric’s deep understanding of acoustic music informs all of his work.
Mandolin
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.
Dylan McCarthy
Jake Leg
With over 25 years experience playing and performing, Dylan McCarthy’s musical background is deep and diverse. Beginning with classical piano at the age of 7, he has explored a breadth of musical genres and instruments. His high school years were steeped in classic rock and roll, cutting his teeth in Denver dive bars at 14. He hit a turning point at 18 with his decision to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA in 2012 for electric bass, while simultaneously discovering his love for mandolin and bluegrass music. He eventually made the decision to return to Denver and pursue his music career in the bluegrass music scene.
Since then, McCarthy has relocated to Lyons and established himself in Colorado as a hard-working professional in the bluegrass and acoustic music scene.
Notable achievements include bringing home a Heartland Emmy award for Musical Composition in 2016, taking first place in the 2019 Rockygrass Mandolin Championship and releasing his debut album of original instrumentals in 2020, Lost & Found, with one of the tracks being awarded 2nd place in the Mike Auldridge Instrumental Contest. More recently he was selected for the IBMA Songwriter Showcase in 2023 and was nominated by IBMA for 2024 Momentum Instrumentalist of the Year. These days you can find him playing in the Colorado progressive bluegrass band Jake Leg (also nominated for 2024 IBMA Momentum Band of the Year) where he is the principal songwriter, and frequently collaborating with other musicians on stage and in the studio
Joe K Walsh
Mr Sun
Hailed by David Grisman as a “wonderful mandolin player”, and by Darol Anger as “one of the best mandolinists I’ve ever played with”, Portland, Maine-based musician Joe K. Walsh is known for his exceptional tone and taste, and his collaborations and recordings with acoustic music luminaries including Darol Anger, Brittany Haas, Grant Gordy, Molly Tuttle, Mike Block, Danny Barnes, Scott Nygaard, Matt Flinner, Mike Marshall’s Ger Mandolin Ensemble, and pop-grass darlings Joy Kills Sorrow, a band he co-founded. He has performed at festivals, club and theaters all over North America and Europe.
After a number of award-winning years with bluegrass stars the Gibson Brothers, Joe currently splits his time between the stylistically-omnivorous string band Mr Sun (featuring Darol Anger, Grant Gordy and Aidan O’Donnell), the Mike Block Trio, a duo with Matt Flinner, and a trio with Ella Jordan and Jed Wilson. His most recent solo record “If Not Now, Who?” was released in 2023 on Adhyaropa Records. An in-demand educator, Joe is an associate professor at the Berklee College of Music. He was director of the Berklee American Roots Weekend string camp, co-directs the Ossipee Valley String Camp, and is coordinator of Swannanoa Mandoin and Banjo Week. He teaches regularly at music camps and workshops all over North America and Europe, and teaches online through Peghead Nation.
Songwriting
Melody Walker
Melody Walker is a GRAMMY-nominated songwriter, producer, performer, and fervent believer that songs can change the world. Best known for her writing with Molly Tuttle, Sierra Ferrell, Della Mae and her own band Front Country, Melody’s post-2020 recalibration has found her finally digging into her home of Nashville, TN, co-writing with her talented neighbors and hosting a weekly writers’ round, Writers’ Kitchen. Her blend of Americana and Pop has won her accolades from Merlefest to Telluride and now the GRAMMYs with three songs on Sierra Ferrell’s nominated album Trail of Flowers (including Americana Song of the Year nominee “American Dreaming”) and co-writes on Molly Tuttle’s GRAMMY-winning albums Crooked Tree and City of Gold.
Recent years have found Melody releasing her first solo music in a decade, stepping into her own as a songwriter and artist and finding magic in queer collaboration. Whether teaching at music camps or playing Newport Folk Fest and the Kennedy Center with her Grateful Dead drag band BERTHA, Melody is ready to ride whatever cosmic creative waves the universe sends her way.
Vocals
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.
He holds a degree in vocal music education from the University Of Massachusetts, Amherst and has taught music professionally from Kindergarten to college. Mougin continues to bring his music-ed background to camps, private workshops, and occasional in-person lessons.
Instrument Building
Marcus Engstrom
Lead 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.”
Cabot Metz
Luthier
Cabot Metz is originally from Southern Oregon. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2017 with a degree in Classical Composition. While attending Berklee he developed a deep love and devotion to American Roots music, spending years studying with Woody Mann, Paul Rishell, and Annie Raines. After returning to the west coast he eventually landed in Bozeman, building guitars for Gibson for the last 2.5 years. It is there he developed an interest in lutherie and started working on his own instruments. Cabot plays pedal steel, banjo, and guitar in many bands in Southwest Montana. He is known to frequent the shops of Dan Roberts and Marcus Engström in hopes of pursuing more skills and knowledge from two distinctive masters of their craft.
Kids Camp 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 classical 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 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 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.
After spending the week with such fiddlers as Jason Carter (Del McCoury Band), Justin never looked back.
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 Leslie
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Sam Grisman Project
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.
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.
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.
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.
Growing up in a musical family playing bluegrass, old-time, country, and other roots music styles, Sam has since enjoyed exploring and studying other genres and musical avenues. As a performer, composer, engineer, and teacher, Sam loves finding how each of these fields can enhance and inform one another to shine the way to a holistic creative flow.
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.
Like Dominick Leslie, this will be Murph’s 21st 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!”
Jacob Groopman
Becky Buller Band
Jacob Groopman is a versatile Nashville-based musician, producer, and educator known for his work in Americana, bluegrass, folk, and world music. A Richmond, Virginia native and Oberlin Conservatory graduate, Groopman has played with a range of projects, from the Afrobeat band Albino! to the award-winning progressive Americana group Front Country. After moving to Nashville in 2016, he released his solo debut Through the Gates in 2021 and joined the Becky Buller Band in 2023. Along with Becky Buller, Jacob also plays with Grammy Award winning songwriter Melody Walker and the Grateful Dead tribute band Bertha. With over 20 years of teaching experience, he also offers private lessons in guitar, bass, mandolin, and banjo.
Bevin Foley
Bevin Foley is a fiddle player, singer, songwriter and teacher from Denver best known for her work as a member of the acclaimed Colorado-based bluegrass band, Trout Steak Revival. She has also performed most recently with Rockygrass favorites, the Solar Sisters. Bevin began her musical journey in elementary school and earned a degree in music from the University of Denver Lamont School of Music. She joined Trout Steak Revival in 2009, contributing her expressive fiddling, harmonies and songwriting to the band’s sound. Trout Steak gained national recognition after winning the 2014 Telluride Bluegrass Festival Band Competition.
Beyond her work with Trout Steak Revival, Bevin is a sought-after session musician and has played on a variety of albums for local and national acts. Bevin is a passionate music educator and has taught orchestra in classrooms across the Denver metro area. Currently she teaches private violin and viola lessons. Her approach combines her classical training with a deep love and appreciation for folk traditions, inspiring students of all ages to explore their musical potential.
Guest 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.
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.