Bluegrass Week 2025

Ira Gitlin – Advisor

Advisor & Jam Leader

Ira Gitlin, a native of New York City, is widely known and respected in Washington-Baltimore bluegrass, folk, and roots-music circles as a versatile multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and writer. A former National Bluegrass Banjo Champion and multiple Wammie award winner, Ira has backed up such nationally known performers as Bill Harrell, the Johnson Mountain Boys, Laurie Lewis, Peter Rowan, and Peter “P.D.Q. Bach” Schickele, and has played on dozens of recording projects. He can be seen performing frequently with a wide range of D.C.-area artists, including the bluegrass band Big Howdy.

In addition to Augusta Bluegrass Week, where he has been a coordinator since 2013, and an instructor and staff musician for nine years before that, Ira has taught at the Maryland Banjo Academy, the Swannanoa Gathering, Pete Wernick’s Bluegrass Camp, and the Midwest Banjo Camp, along with numerous festival workshops and private lessons. He has written about bluegrass music in the pages of Bluegrass Unlimited, Banjo NewsLetter, and Bluegrass Now, and has contributed liner notes to several commercial recordings. Ira has lectured on the history of bluegrass for the Smithsonian Associates, and he presented papers at the 2005 and 2017 Bluegrass Music Symposiums.

Wayne Benson

Advanced Mandolin

Wayne Benson has been the mandolinist with Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out for 30 years. He is also the six-time SPBGMA Mandolin Player of the Year and recipient of eleven IBMA awards in various categories. In 2001, Wayne partnered with Gibson Musical Instruments to produce the Wayne Benson signature model mandolin. He is also the creator of the instructional YouTube channel, Wayne’s World of Mandolin. In addition to performing, recording, and maintaining his online presence, Wayne teaches a full roster of private students each week.

Dan Boner

Vocals

Professor Dan Boner is an award-winning performing artist, recording engineer, producer, audio equipment designer, and music educator with decades of experience in bluegrass and acoustic music. As program director of the renowned Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies at East Tennessee State University, he works every day among distinguished teachers and talented students from around the world, who wish to experience music in cultural context within Appalachia.

Chris Brashear

Beginning Mandolin

Chris Brashear plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar and he is a singer with a wide vocal range and a clear, distinctive voice. He is also a songwriter.

He brings over thirty years of professional music experience as a performer, producer, teacher and recording artist. He has taught at numerous camps and festival workshops across the country, including the Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Camp, the Joe Val Memorial Bluegrass Festival, Banjo and Mandolin Camps North, Walker Creek Music Camp, Roots & Boots Music Camp, Berea College Music Festival, the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention and Mars Hill Roots Music Camp. He has solo recordings produced by Jody Stecher and Jim Rooneye.

Bill Evans

Advanced Banjo

Steve Martin Banjo Prize recipient and American Banjo Museum Hall of Fame member Bill Evans is one of the most experienced bluegrass banjo teachers in the world, having taught thousands of players of all ability levels over fifty years of teaching experience at music camps, workshops and one-on-one lessons. Bill is the author of Banjo For Dummies and hosts nine video instructional projects for Homespun Music, AcuTab Publications and the Murphy Method. He also teaches five online courses for Peghead Nation and continues to teach one-on-one Zoom lessons to students from all over the world. He learned directly and has collaborated with such banjo greats such as Sonny Osborne, J. D. Crowe, Ben Eldridge, Bill Keith, Bill Emerson, Alan Munde and Tony Trischka. As a performer, Bill has recorded and toured with Dry Branch Fire Squad, Dan Crary, Alan Munde, David Grisman, Peter Rowan and the California Bluegrass Reunion, among many others. You can learn more about Bill by visiting www.billevansbanjo.com or www.youtube.com/BillEvansBanjo.

Grant Flick

Intermediate Mandolin

Grant Flick is a performer, recording artist, composer, and educator currently based in Ann Arbor, MI. He plays many instruments including violin, mandolin, tenor guitar, nyckelharpa, tenor banjo, and viola. Primarily, his interests are new acoustic music, jazz manouche, jazz/swing, bluegrass, and American old-time. His current original music projects, Westbound Situation, Warren & Flick, and Hannah O’Brien and Grant Flick, explore the fusion of chamber music with the influences listed above. In these groups, he writes pieces influenced from many styles that feature the collective spontaneity and imagination of the fellow improvisatory musicians with whom he collaborates. Examples of his writing can be heard on “Accord” (Westbound Situation), “Tomorrow Worries About Itself” (Grant Flick), “Windward” (Hannah O’Brien and Grant Flick), and “Waxwing” (Warren & Flick). Grant has received numerous music awards including the 2013 Daniel Pearl Memorial Violin. He was a finalist in the 2015 Walnut Valley Festival Fiddle Competition in Winfield, Kansas, as well as the 2017 Freshgrass Fiddle Competition in North Adams, Massachusetts. Additionally, several competitive collegiate awards and grants for improvisation, acoustic chamber music inventiveness, and music education have been presented to his original groups in the past few years. Grant has been selected as a two-time participant (2015 and 2016) of the Acoustic Music Seminar held at the Savannah Music Festival in Savannah, Georgia. He has taught workshops at numerous camps throughout America including Augusta Bluegrass Week, Charm City Django Fest, the Tenor Guitar Gathering, and River of the West Mandolin Camp. Grant also tours and performs regularly and has played at many music festivals including Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, ROMP Fest, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and the Savannah Music Festival. Frank Vignola, Mike Marshall, Julian Lage, and Darol Anger are just some of the notable musicians with whom Grant has appeared on stage. Grant recently completed a Master’s degree at University of Michigan in Improvisation.

Tyler Grant

Intermediate Guitar

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, Tryin’ To Have A Good Time (Americana Vibes, 2022), is a tribute to his late father. 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 five 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.

Jack Hatfield

Beginning Banjo

Jack Hatfield has been picking banjo since he was seventeen years old. After a career teaching private lessons, writing Banjo Newsletter columns and Mel Bay instruction books, organizing several USTA tennis teams and running his banjo shop and annual Smoky Mountain Banjo Academy and performing around East Tennessee, he is currently retired from his banjo camp and day-to-day operations at Hatfield Music. He has left the business in the capable hands of favorite sister Jane. He is still available to answer customer questions and perform banjo setups.

Jack still appears at various banjo workshops and camps, directs the annual SPBGMA banjo workshop in Nashville, and performs with his bluegrass band True Blue, his Americana band Hatfield’s Heathens and his jam-grass band Acoustic Tone Zone. He viewed the 2016 wildfire total loss as an opportunity to divulge from anything not related to studying the banjo, so his current “job” is performing, practicing banjo forty hours per week and working on a solo banjo album. The project will showcase many recently-discovered approaches to banjo technique and include a few of the more than one hundred original tunes he has written since his 2016.

Sarah Larsen

Bluegrass Kids Academy

Sarah Larsen is a multi-faceted teacher & musician. Originally from ​Wisconsin, she grew up playing classical music with her pianist ​mother and sister. Her formative years were spent at Lawrence ​University, the Walnut Hill School, New England Conservatory’s ​Preparatory Division, and the University of Hartford’s Hartt School ​on full scholarship. College introduced her to alternative styles ​including a run with string quartet Vox4 that led to Carnegie Hall; ​Americana rock string trio, Little Ugly; and premiering Gary ​Tomasetti’s Violin Concerto written specifically for her. Refusing to be defined by labels or genres, Sarah is equally at home ​in a jazz jam, a bluegrass pick, or an orchestral setting. She has ​spent over 30 years learning to communicate with musicians of all ​levels and styles, and has dedicated her life to helping others ​achieve satisfaction and joy through music.

Chris Luquette

Advanced Guitar

Chris Luquette is a 2 time Grammy nominated guitarist from Seattle Washington. He spent 11 years touring with renowned progressive bluegrass combo Frank Solivan & Dirty Kitchen. FSDK performed on 4 continents, played the legendary Grand Ol Opry in Nashville twice, and made appearances at such festivals as Telluride Bluegrass, Wintergrass, RockyGrass and DelFest. A 2013 recipient, he was the first musician to win the IBMA’s first Momentum award for an instrumentalist. With Dirty Kitchen , Chris also received multiple IBMA awards, and 2 Grammy nominations for the records Cold Spell and If You Can’t Stand The Heat on Compass records (Nashville). A member of the Mona’s Monday Night Bluegrass Session house band, he’s hosted several renowned bluegrass sessions in NYC, and regularly appears at local music clubs such as Rockwood, Sunny’s, Skinny Dennis and others when not on the road. An accomplished teacher, along with teaching private lessons for nearly 15 years, he’s been invited to teach at prestigious music and guitar camps such as Delfest Academy, RockyGrass Academy, California Coast Music Camp, Northwest Flatpicking Camp, Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week, La Roche Bluegrass Camp(France) American and Midwest Banjo camps and more. Chris’ solo recordings include 2019’s ‘The Way I View The World’, and 2022’s ‘City Suite For Two Guitars’, both released to critical acclaim. Both recordings can be heard on such stations as Sirius XM’s Bluegrass Junction, KBCS’s Bluegrass Ramble, WVBR’s Salt Creel Show and many more.

Laura Orshaw

Beginning Fiddle

GRAMMY nominated fiddler and vocalist Laura Orshaw has toured throughout North America and Europe with Danny Paisley and the Southern Grass, the Tennessee Mafia Jug Band, Alan Bibey & Grasstowne, and her current band, The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys.  In 2020 Laura won in two categories at the prestigious International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) Awards Show, and in 2019, the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America (SPBGMA) named Laura the Fiddle Performer of the Year, making her the first woman to win the award.  In 2021, Laura signed as a solo artist with Dark Shadow Recording and her debut album out in Spring 2022 has already received significant attention and airplay. Laura has performed with Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, John Scofield, Mike Compton, Sarah Jarosz, Tony Trischka, Becky Buller, and Darol Anger among others. Her music has been featured on SiriusXM’s Bluegrass Junction, and in Bluegrass Today, No Depression, Sing Out!, and Dirty Linen. According to Bluegrass Unlimited, “Laura Orshaw has firmly established herself as a significant emerging artist in the arena of traditional American music… [she is] an extremely talented musician with unlimited potential.” Laura is also a highly sought-after instructor who has taught numerous camps, workshops and kids’ academies, and started teaching weekly lessons to adults when she was just 12 years old.

Tammy Rogers

Advanced Fiddle

As a co-founder of the GRAMMY-winning super group The SteelDrivers, Rogers has solidified a unique sound that resonates around the globe. Nurtured by a family deeply rooted in bluegrass with her dad showing her a few chords on the mandolin at the age of five, she stepped onto the stage of various bluegrass festivals with the family band. The rest reads like a novel of an aspiring musician, but her story is non-fiction and has numerous chapters of accolades and accomplishments. After receiving a scholarship to SMU (Southern Methodist University) for classical performance, the Tennessee native studied and discovered a variety of styles and realized Nashville was her future and transferred to Belmont University to round out her education. There was no turning back as she quickly became one of her most in-demand players and toured with some of the hottest acts on the road. From Trisha Yearwood and Patty Loveless, Emmy Lou Harris to Buddy Miller, Rogers found herself playing from coast-to-coast, as well as performing on numerous TV shows and developing a solid session player reputation for various platinum-selling artists.

Mark Schatz

Beginning, Intermediate/Advanced Bass

Twice named International Bluegrass Music Association’s Bass Player of the Year, Mark Schatz has toured and recorded with a stellar array of artists including Bela Fleck, Tony Rice, John Hartford, Tim O’Brien, acoustic innovators Nickel Creek, Claire Lynch, and Sarah Jarosz. Mark is the Musical Director for internationally acclaimed Footworks Percussive Dance Ensemble which showcases other talents such as clawhammer banjo and Southern Appalachian clog dancing. This versatile multi-instrumentalist has two of his own solo recordings, Brand New Old Tyme Way and Steppin’ in the Boiler House on Rounder Records, which feature his own eclectic blend of original compositions on the banjo. Grit & Polish, his most recent release with former Claire Lynch bandmate, Bryan McDowell, is a pared down burst of everything from old time to Bob Dylan.

John Seebach

Bluegrass Ensembles

John Seebach was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky. He lives in the Washington, DC, area. An accomplished tenor and lead vocalist, John also performs on mandolin and guitar with the Rickie Simpkins Quartet, Only Lonesome, and Big Chimney.

Grace Van’t Hof

Intermediate Banjo

Michigan’s Grace van’t Hof discovered the banjo in high school when they built a five-string prototype that won second place in a statewide science olympiad. Inspired by a classical and liturgical music background and artists from Charlie Poole to Puccini, Grace’s banjo, ukulele, and accordion playing proffer equal parts rhythm and ornamentation to projects of varied musical genres, though never straying too far from the genre bending pop, country, and stringband music of the 1920s and 30s.

A founding member of both the Grammy-nominated group Della Mae, and the internationally known oldtime group Bill and the Belles, van’t Hof’s career has taken them around the world. In addition to performances with various Detroit ensembles, Grace also tours the U.S. and beyond with the bluegrass group Chris Jones & the Night Drivers.

In their writing and solo work, Grace seeks to explore, map, and poke holes in the varied and complicated roles of men, women, and those in between in early country, bluegrass, gospel and old-time music.

Brian Wicklund

Intermediate Fiddle

Brian Wicklund is widely regarded as among the top fiddle teachers and performers in the country. He is the author the best-selling books, The American Fiddle Method published by Mel Bay and heads AFM online school. He is an instructor at top camps and workshops in the US, Canada, UK and Sweden including his own AFM Fiddle Camp. Brian has been a member of bluegrass bands for decades including: Stoney Lonesome, Judith Edelman Band, Kathy Kallick Band, and Chris Stuart Band. He currently fronts Minnesota-based progressive bluegrass band Barley Jacks.

Joy Louise Williams

Beginning Guitar

Award winning multi-instrumentalist, Joy Louise whose guitar playing was praised by critics as “…technically immaculate”, enjoys an active career as a collaborative band member and soloist. She made her solo debut at the age of three years old often singing in front of large concert crowds in the American Southwest. Joy is a prodigious songwriter and teacher as well as a busy studio musician. Even as a teen, Joy won many flatpicking guitar contests often competing against seasoned players two or three times her age. In high demand as a session musician in Los Angeles she has also performed with several ensembles including The Gatlin Brothers, Marty Raybon and Randy Travis. Recent performances have taken her to Nashville, Tennessee, Salem, Oregon and Long Island, New York.