Switzerland
Membership & Development, At large
Kenny Baker & Josh Graves Tennessee – Kentucky Favorites
“Come for the music, stay for the community” has always been my motto and experience with bluegrass music. I have helped to build communities in Switzerland and Europe and have felt part of a worldwide family, even though I don’t understand myself as a professional musician. I have been happy to contribute with my various skills in finance, administration, project management and also leading organisations. After some years’ break, I am now prepared to pick up ends and get involved again.
Interim treasurer EBMA (10.23), interim treasurer SBMA (since 05.23), Wernick Method Bluegrass Jamming teacher (2014), Bluegrass concert promoter and tour-organiser, hobby-musician (fiddle, guitar, bass), ex-chairperson EBMA (until 2015), SBMA (1999-2004) and Bluegrass in Basel (2006-2014), ex-board member IBMA.
Accounting for and administration of Associations, extensive experience with Swiss association law, acquired leadership expertise. Besides a certificate as accounting officer I also have a degree in PR, a Master degree in culture management and a degree in fundraising management for NPOs.
With my experience in bookkeeping and finances as well as organisational development, I would like to continue in my capacity as treasurer. I would serve in the constituency at large, preferably, or membership development, contributing my broad experience and knowledge of association law and development.
France / UK
Membership & Development, Events & Bookers, At large
Old & In The Way
Bluegrass is above all else a “community” to me, where there is no star system and generosity is a fundamental value. I love the music and I love the community. Where else but in Bluegrass will the leader of the band give equal measure to every member? This is what I see for the EBMA.
Since 1980s : Performing Musician in bands Pony Express, Moonshine BG Band, Moonshine and poniXpress 2.0
2002-10 : FBMA Chair
– Magazine editor 2003-06
– ran Spring Jam Meeting
– co-founded Winter Meeting
2008-12 : EBMA Vice Chair
2006-present : Founder, chair and artistic director Bluegrass in La Roche
2018 : IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award
2023 : IBMA Leadership Bluegrass participant
2020-26 : IBMA Board of Directors (International Constituency)
– Launched International Band Performance Grant 2022
– Launched 1st International Pavilion and Stage at IBMA 2023
Use the power of the internet to bring constituencies of people together in networks, forums, webinars and meet-ups to exchange experiences and ideas, build projects and to grow a stronger coalition of forces for Bluegrass across all of Europe for all players and activists on stage and behind the scenes.
Create a strong structure that will continue to serve after I am no longer involved.
Belgium
Events & Bookers, Industry and Education
Kenny Baker plays Bill Monroe + Del McCoury Classic Bluegrass
Bluegrass is my passion, a way of life, a unique tradition of story telling that runs deep in the veins of the every person in the global Bluegrass family. Jams, festivals and concerts are magical family reunions with music as common language to share our stories
I am completely hooked on Bluegrass since the moment I discovered it. To my own frustration this was only later in life when I was 24 years old and was invited to play fiddle in a band. I was classically trained and needed to learn myself how to improvise and find a new sound. I went to Tughill Bluegrass festival in upstate New York and earned my first dollars on stage there being invited to join some of the bands there and got to jam with the Gibson brothers, Becky Buller and Mike Marshall and dropped by Big Bob’s BG jam in Manhattan. I bought myself a fiddle in California (lower bridge, more nasal and crunchy sound) and have been playing in several Belgium based BG bands at multiple BG and non-BG festivals. I join EWOB every year with my 2 sons (4 and 6 years old), I co-hosted the Foxbarn festival, went to sorefingers UK and I contributed to the recording of André Dal’s Beyond the Tagus river album. Finishing 5 years of classical conservatoire I also am still active as a freelance classical violinist and also studied the Master after Master in culture management at the University of Antwerp.
Experience and expertise you have that will help EBMA
European network organisations, higher music education, culture management
How will you contribute to EBMA beyond your current involvement?
To be discussed in relation to actual needs and vision for the future of EBMA
Netherlands
Events & Bookers
Memories by Doc Watson & Lonesome Road By Doc and Merle Watson
Joy, Connection, openness. The social and open aspect of bluegrass music that binds so many different people together in a positive way and the Incredible musicality is something that inspires me.
I am the director of the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival since 2009. For the RBF I am responsible for the Programming/line up, Finances and organisation. The RBF attracts 12000 visitors in a weekend.
My experience lies in organisation, booking/artist management and finances.
Organisation: The RBF team is an open organisation not top down. An organisation should be open, inclusive and concise about fair practise. organizing the Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, the last 12 years, has given me a lot of experience in working and connecting with a lot a lot of different people, companies, artists, entities, etc.
I like to host and lead meetings in order to facilitate others to work with Bluegrass and encourage them to start working on the same goals; Promoting, supporting and professionalize European Bluegrass. Finances: My experience is in Government and private project funding, budgeting and project planning. Commercial sales, Working with suppliers and other commercial parties.
First, I would like to contribute in helping set up and structure the new board and organisation of the EBMA and in doing so make sure the EBMA will become an open, transparent and inclusive organisation where everybody young, old, blue or green should feel at home and is heard.
Then start working together with the constituencies to see what the needs are, then working out projects (network, talent support, jam network, marketing etc). grow visibility and communication of the EBMA. Contribute to support and promote European Bluegrass, musicians in a positive and constructive manner.
USA residing in Germany
Membership & Development, At large
Old and In the Way
Bluegrass always feels like home and nourishes my soul. The technicality and precision mean discipline and calm to me. Bluegrass has also means inclusion, all are welcome to tell their story in classic 1 4 5 or something entirely different and unique!
I am a fiddle player who hails from north Florida, where I had a community of bluegrassers and played professionally for about 7 years. I have continued to play a bit as a hobby since, with some gigs in the UK. I go to a festival at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Florida once or twice each year for my musical inspiration – this keeps me nicely connected with the US scene and musician friends from the area.
I can dedicate about an average of 2 hours per week. Having been in office jobs in the past 10 years, I can manage communications or surveys on developing the organisation further. I have also volunteered/worked at festivals in the past, and would be happy to do EBMA related things at a European festival. Strengths are: positivity and inspiring motivation, IT tools and email communications, gathering feedback and sharing summaries.
1. I wish to work on the Jam Calendar and provide members a monthly Jam Newsletter, after gathering highlights from the Jam Hosts around Europe. I hope this would inspire members and musicians to travel a little across borders to seek out each other. We should take advantage of the continental proximity!
Switzerland
Membership & Development, Artists, At large
The Bluegrass Album Band, California Connection
Bluegrass has now become my second family. I meet up regularly with like-minded friends, play the music and have a lot of fun doing it. I simply couldn’t imagine my life without bluegrass.
I have been listening to and playing bluegrass (5-string) for over 35 years and teach the instrument in my spare time. I have been playing in my own bluegrass band “Lounge Pickers” for over 10 years. I also support the Swiss bluegrass scene and am well connected in Switzerland – but also in nearby Europe. I have been an active member of the committee of the “Bluegrass Openair Festival” in Urnäsch (CH) for 5 years and maintain good connections with European bluegrass bands. I have also been a member of the EBMA Board for about 4 years.
My musical contacts in Europe help me to better understand the wishes and problems of the bluegrass base. Through my work as a software engineer and process manager, my strengths lie in pragmatic solutions in the field of IT and related systems – especially web development. This also includes knowledge of social media and general communication on the Internet.
The website and the entire “Listings” section on ebma.org were designed by me and the former EBMA board. I was largely responsible for the implementation. This is where I would like to start and drive forward and modernize the development, thereby creating added value for every single member. Be it for interested members, musicians, bands, companies, jam organizers, artists, but also for concert and festival organizers. This also includes the expansion and networking of an event calendar. My focus in all of this is clearly on Europe.
USA living in Ireland
Artists, Media, Industry and Education
Alan Bibey’s In the Blue Room.
Bluegrass is an important source of musical and personal fulfillment for me. Both jamming and talking with folks from around the world about this music has given me some of my most treasured memories, and I know there are more to come.
I have been playing bluegrass since I was 10 and played/toured semi-professionally in the early 2000s. This encompassed playing at the White House, taping televised performances for the program Bluegrass Express on ETV, several residencies performing at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri, and showcases at IBMA conferences. I am currently pursuing my PhD in Musicology where my doctoral research investigates bluegrass in an international context. I have written about bluegrass in an academic context for several years now and have presented that research at several refereed conferences. In addition, I am a founding member of the SMT (Society for Music Theory) Interest Group for bluegrass, country and american folk music. I continue to play and find great joy in the lifelong friendships I’ve made as a result of the bluegrass scene.
In addition to my experience in the bluegrass community, I hold a degree in classical guitar performance and two degrees in music theory. In academia, I have worked as a tutor and graduate assistant lecturer for both small, liberal arts conservatories and extremely large state schools. I have found that these institutions contain a (higher-than-expected) number of students who already play bluegrass or who are interested in learning more about the style. In my lectures, I have used bluegrass music to illustrate elements of musical form, harmony, harmonic function and as the source material for ear training exercises. As both a performer and a researcher, I see the important connection bluegrass music and culture is forming with the academic world. Dr. Bidgood recently raised this point in one of our meetings and I agree that institutional partnerships with active scholars or collegiate bluegrass communities could positively benefit the EBMA in terms of recruitment, exposure, representation and structural support.
Outside of my musical endeavors, I spent several years in industrial project management in the United States. I served as part of the executive team deployed by a venture capitalist firm, which specialized in insolvency. Our task was to return newly-acquired holdings to profitability. I have extensive experience drafting and enacting strategic plans related to organizational restructuring and process improvement. In another role, I created and delivered learning and personal development content to a company of over six hundred employees both virtually and in-person. This included audio/visual editing, recording, website and in-app design as well as marketing campaigns and other class management-related responsibilities. I would be honored to use my skills to help foster growth, community and education in the international bluegrass scene.
I would like to be involved in any way that is helpful to the organization.
France
Media, Industry and Education
The Country Gentlemen “On The Road”, Folkways edition.
I played many music styles. But if I like the sound of Bluegrass music, I also love the way people share and spread it. On my first Bluegrass jams, I was kindly helped by perfect strangers, and this happens all the time with newcomers. There is always someone glad to help, this is the only kind of music where it seems “written in the genes”.
Everything I experienced since my first Bluegrass years (jamming, playing, attending workshops or concerts, working in associations or as a music teacher, put together a project…) was always a collective success.
Bluegrass is definitely a collective and friendly experience. I love that.
Musician, creation of Jam Hall, Kids On Bluegrass Europe promoter, 4 years FBMA webmaster and promoter, Wernick Method teacher
Teaching, Kids On Bluegrass Europe, webmastering…
Developing KOBE in Europe, web communication, developing Bluegrass teaching.
USA, resident in Germany
Artists, Media, Industry and Education
Stoney Lonesome (with Kate MacKenzie) — Lonesome Tonight (1991)
When I spoke with Pete Seeger before his passing, he spoke with me about how his own mentor, Carl Sandburg, told him about how Swedes were treated in Chicago, and called “dirty Swedes”; I am descended from those “dirty Swedes”, at once American and also European, scrabbling at existence, whether in the famined potato fields, the New World’s railroads, in the factories, or tuck-pointing on the sides of Chicago’s skyscrapers. Like Pete, the son of an academic, I was the son of a physician and a poet, yet I hungered for the beautiful whine and whirr of the bluer side; that’s what I found in bluegrass, after a childhood of classical, jazz and folk.
– Composer: I wrote the premiere “bluegrass liturgy” used in the US, called “Light into the World”, 20 years ago, which is being used by countless congregations around the country, and ran workshops (funded by the Lilly Endowment) in Colorado, Minnesota, New York, and Sweden. Dozens of other compositions and liturgies in the same 4-part harmony and bluegrass arrangements have been published, including “Mountain Vespers” which has been performed for 22 years without fail at Holden Village, a Christian Retreat Center with thousands of ecumenical visitors per year.
– Performer: I released several albums as a vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist, including one (“Stolen Shack”) that was featured by NPR’s All Songs Considered, and brought the sounds of bluegrass and old-time music together with improvised Baroque music.
– Educator: I have given workshops, spoken about, and taught at the university level on composition, vocals, gospel music, music history, Doc Watson, guitar, mandolin, and upright bass, across the United States, and in Sweden and Germany.
– Publisher: I have published hundreds of books in all genres (see Blooming Twig, the publishing company I founded in 2004). I have also published all of my own musical scores, and have extensive experience in distribution channels.
– Author/Historian: My full-length biography of Doc Watson (2010/2012) “Blind but Now I See” won the Biography of the Year Award by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and was a runner up in the Foreword Book of the Year Awards in the Biography category.
Extensive branding and marketing experience, and other nonprofit, business, and academic work
I’d like to get involved however I’m needed.
Netherlands
Artists, At large
Joe Val Live in Holland
Bluegrass to me, besides a the description of a genre of music which I play, means a great deal to me personally. Bluegrass comes with a great (international) community which shaped a big part of my life and deserves more European attention.
Bluegrass musician since 2014. Former student at the ETSU Bluegrass, Old Time & Country music studies program.
Being a (semi) professional bluegrass artist for the past few years touring in many different countries in the EU and US.
Help connecting and uniting all bluegrass lovers/players/enthusiasts/listeners/collectors/promotors/bookers/ throughout Europe in a refreshing way.
Ireland
Artists, Media, At large
The Dillards Back Porch Bluegrass
I’ve been a Bluegrass radio host for over 20 years so I can’t imagine my life without some involvement with the Bluegrass community.
Bluegrass radio host for 20+ years
Service on Corporate Boards for many years
Promote EBMA through my several international Bluegrass Radio shows.