The Blue Ridge Music Center in Galax, VA is offering a free virtual business conference on Friday, February 26, entitled A Place in the Band: Women in Bluegrass and American Roots Music. This live event is part of a series on this topic hosted by the Music Center, which got its start last year as part of their centennial celebration of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the right to vote.
The conference on Friday will mix live performance with discussion, and clips from the interview series on this theme that was conducted in 2020. Noted banjo player and record label owner Alison Brown will serve as the keynote speaker, with contributions from Cathy Fink, Missy Raines, Annie Staninec, and Trisha Tubbs, all familiar names and faces in the bluegrass world.
A Place In The Band is scheduled to run from noon to 4:00 p.m. (EST), and while the conference is offered free of charge, preregistration is required. Once you complete the simple online registration, you will receive an email with a link to the Zoom conference.
Friday’s conference schedule follows:
- 12:00 – Welcome remarks, short set by Alison Brown
- 12:15 – Keynote address (Alison Brown)
- 12:45 – Short set by Cathy Fink and excerpts from the interview series
- 1:00 – Panel 1: Discussion with women industry professionals: Kimberly Glick, Jamie Katz Court, Lisa Schwartz, Trisha Tubbs, facilitated by Claire Armbruster
- 1:45 – Short set by Annie Staninec and excerpts from the interview series
- 2:00 – Panel 2: Discussion with female artists: Cathy Fink, Leyla McCalla, Missy Raines, Annie Staninec, facilitated by Laurelyn Dossett
- 2:45 – Short set by Leyla McCalla and excerpts from the interview series
- 3:00 – Panel 3: Where do we go from here: participants from the 1st two panels, facilitated by Claire Armbruster
- 3:45 – Short set by Missy Raines
To get a feel for the sort of discussions that will be included, here is a snippet of one of last year’s interviews, with Kristin Scott Benson of The Grascals. She talks about her experiences as a woman in bluegrass with Laurelyn Dossett.
You can see all of the Blue Ridge Music Center interviews from the 2020 A Place In The Band series online.
Full details about Friday’s conference can be found on the Music Center web site.
