The IBMA has posted the keynote address from last week's business conference on line.
The address, delivered by Roger Brown, President of the Berklee College of Music, spoke of the parallels in the birth of Bluegrass and Bebop in the 1940s and 50s.
Berklee has recently added the banjo and mandolin to their curriculum. Many of the current and future young stars of Bluegrass are Berklee graduates. Here is a exerpt from Brown's address:
"We have made banjo and mandolin principle instruments.We presented Honorary Doctorates to Earl Scruggs and Ricky Skaggs. Our alumni are making their mark in bluegrass and related musics: Casey Driessen, Rushad Eggleston, Natalie Maines, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, Andy Hall, Chris Pandolfi, Bryn Davies and Japanese banjo player Hiro Arita, and some newly minted alumni like Nate Leath, Ashley Caudhill, Joe Walsh and Charlie Worsham. And as a result, we are getting some very serious players at the college—one group from Berklee (Eric Roberston, Nate Leath, Sam Grisman, Nick Falk and Stash Wyslouch) is doing a showcase here later this week and I’m told they can tear it up. Mando champion Dominick Leslie, a freshman at the college, plays a showcase later tonight."
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