Bluegrass Performance Ensemble

Bluegrass music is a 20th-century amalgam of popular and traditional music styles that coalesced in the 1940s in the American Southeast, emphasizing vocal performance and instrumental improvisation. This ensemble will highlight, through performance, many of the influences and traditions that bluegrass comprises, including ballads, breakdowns, “brother duets,” gospel quartets, Irish-style medleys, “modal” instrumentals, “old-time” country, popular song, and rhythm and blues, among many possible others. Though experienced players will have plenty of opportunities to improvise, participants need not have played bluegrass before. The ensemble should include fiddle, 5-string banjo, steel-string acoustic guitar, mandolin, resophonic guitar (Dobro^®), and upright (double) bass.