The winners of the 2025 Alan Niedlerand Memorial Scholarship, which provides full tuition costs to attend the Alan Bibey Mandolin Camp for worthy young musicians, have been announced. The scholarship was established in honor of North Carolina mandolinist Niederland, who died from cancer in 2023.
Selected this year are siblings Jacob and Alissa Thomas from Tennessee, and Red Day from Connecticut. Jacob is a 15 year old mandolinist, and Alyssa, 11, plays guitar. Red is 15, and the regular mandolinist with the Hosmer Mountain Boys.
The Bibey Camp runs October 15-17 at the Holiday Inn Resort in Surfside Beach, SC. Though primarily for students of the mandolin, the Camp also welcomes students of other instruments, with classes offered by top players like Kenny Smith for guitar, Ron Stewart for fiddle and banjo, and Zak McLamb for bass.
Helping Alan with the mandolin classes will be Forrest O’Connor, Don Stiernberg, and Ralph McGee. Jeff Huffman is assisting the guitar classes.
Alan feels strongly about making these scholarship spots available, and loves doing it in a way that remembers his friend.
“We do it in memory of Alan Niedlerand, who was a regular at camp every year, and helped me out a lot with all camp details. He sadly passed away a few years ago.
This camp has been a huge blessing to us all. Lydia Hamby, who ended up going to ETSU and is now embarking on a career in music, told me she would’ve never gone in that direction if it wasn’t for our camp. That blew my mind.
A long time ago I was that young kid, so I have a soft spot for them, and want to help all I can.”
The Niederland scholarships are partially funded by donations, and Bibey makes up the difference himself.
Alan says that he only takes 80 students to the Camp, with about ten spots still available this year.
Full details can be found online.
