Devin Jones wins Fletcher Bright scholarship at Berklee
Devin Jones, a first year guitar student at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, has been awarded a Fletcher Bright Endowed Scholarship to help pay for his ongoing studies. Fiddler Ruth Shumway was also chosen to receive this scholarship. Both were given out at the recent 2024 String Awards on April 8 at Berklee […]
Tony Watt accepts faculty position at Berklee
The busiest bluegrass in Boston may be Tony Watt, who in addition to being a flat picker for hire, also teaches privately in the area, both in person and online, hosts the continuing Bluegrass Tuesdays concerts and jams in Cambridge, and serves as Vice President of the Boston Bluegrass Union. Tony now has another feather […]
Laura Orshaw wins 2023 Eisenson Family Prize for American Roots Music
The Berklee College of Music in Boston has announced bluegrass fiddler and vocalist Laura Orshaw as the recipient of the 2023 Eisenson Family Prize for American Roots Music. The annual award is decided based on criteria set by renowned fiddler and violinist Matt Glaser, who directs the American Roots Music program at Berklee. The Eisenson […]
Berklee’s American Roots Music program celebrates 10 years
Boston’s Berklee College of Music’s American Roots Music program is to mark its 10th anniversary with a special concert that will feature collaborations between artists in styles as varied as blues, Celtic, country, Gospel, early jazz, folk, old-time, spirituals and western swing as well as bluegrass music. The line-up features some who have passed through [...] Goldbrickin’ video from OctoPladd
OctoPladd is another young band formed within the growing bluegrass community that surrounds the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Their name could have bizarre, mystical connotations - or it could just be because each of the four of them are wearing two plaid shirts in their promotional picture. In any event, they are remarkably talented [...] Julian Pinelli wins 2016 Fletcher Bright Award at Berklee
The American Roots Music Program at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA has announced Julian Pinelli as the winner of the 2016 Fletcher Bright Award. The award has been given since 2008 to an outstanding young Berklee student in the strings program, which covers the cost of a semester's tuition, and is funded [...] Exploring Classical Mandolin by August Watters
It's a long way from Bean Blossom to Boston, but that's the exact route August Watters' life has taken. Growing up in Unionville, IN, just ten miles from the famous festival put on by Bill Monroe, Watters never imagined that his boyhood impressions of Big Mon would culminate in a career playing mandolin, and working as an [...] Casey Driessen to Berklee’s Valencia campus
Fiddler extraordinaire, and Berklee grad, Casey Driessen, has accepted a teaching position at the Berklee College of Music's European campus in Valencia, Spain. He will direct a masters program in Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) that is not instrument specific. Driessen came up as a bluegrass fiddler, but since graduating from Berklee he has developed a fascinating performance vehicle [...] Mando news from Berklee
We caught up recently with Joe Walsh, mandolin instructor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and he shared some news from the growing 8 string community on campus. Joe says that they now have about ten mandolinists studying at Berklee, enough for him to put together an ensemble specifically geared towards the music [...] BBU Heritage Award winners announced
The Boston Bluegrass Union has announced the 2015 recipients of their BBU Heritage Awards. These awards are presented annually to honor artists and others who have made substantial contributions to bluegrass music in New England and beyond. For 2015, the winners are Berklee College of Music in the Industry category, and The White Brothers, Roland, Eric and [...] 