Balla Kouyaté & Famoro Dioubaté
Two masters of the West African balafon, Balla Kouyaté from Mali and Famoro Dioubaté from Guinea, have joined forces to showcase their approaches, both deeply traditional and yet modern and inventive, to this ancient instrument. Each performance from Kouyaté and Dioubaté is a treat for audiences and artists alike, full of the thrill of the unexpected, as these two artists...
Dovie Thomason
Dovie Thomason is an award-winning storyteller, recording artist, and author of Lakota, Apache, and Scot Traveller (an itinerant cultural group from Scotland) descent. She is recognized internationally for her ability to craft tales that enchant audiences while teaching invaluable lessons about human nature and Indigenous worldviews. With intergenerational appeal, Thomason shares traditional stories, enriched by her experiences working alongside tradition...
Rajna Swaminathan & Ganavya Doraiswamy
Artists' websites: Rajna Swaminathan & Ganavya Doraiswamy Rajna Swaminathan and Ganavya Doraiswamy are two virtuosic, internationally acclaimed young South Indian musicians, composers, and scholars. Rajna is one of only a few women practitioners of the mrudangam, a double-headed drum that is the defining instrument of Carnatic music. Ganavya is a multidisciplinary artist trained in several classical Indian art forms, including Carnatic...
Wendy MacIsaac, Màiri Rankin, & Mac Morin
Wendy MacIsaac, Mac Morin, and Màiri Rankin are a powerhouse trio of Cape Breton musicians. The core members of the award-winning band Beòlach, they came together over 20 years ago at a late-night session during the Celtic Colours International Music Festival. The demands of solo careers and family life put Beòlach on hiatus for a few years, but they reformed...
Don Vappie Trio
Banjo maestro, Creole cultural expert, and jazzman extraordinaire Don Vappie is a living embodiment of 300 years of New Orleans music. Among the city’s most celebrated and respected musicians, Vappie’s contributions on the tenor and six-string banjos, and as a guitarist, vocalist, composer, arranger, historian, educator, and cultural ambassador firmly position him among the leading figures of New Orleans music....
The Red Trouser Show
The Red Trouser Show is a never-before-seen combination of precision acrobatics paired with daring feats, such as knife and fire juggling, and a breathtaking final act that ends high in the air. Based in the centuries-old tradition of street performance arts and busking, the Red Trouser Show features Tobin Renwick and David Graham. Street performance and busking traditions date back...
Riley Baugus
Although it is called “old-time,” the music Riley Baugus plays is, as he says, both old and new, “a living, breathing example of music and tradition that still lives in the mountains near my home.” Growing up in the rural community where he still lives, Baugus was surrounded by music—at home through the records his parents played, and in the...
Phil Wiggins
Phil Wiggins is arguably America’s foremost blues harmonica virtuoso, and a master of the unique blues traditions of the Piedmont. He achieved worldwide acclaim over three decades as one half of the premier Piedmont blues duo of Cephas & Wiggins. Blues from the Piedmont—the hilly region between the Appalachians and low-lying coastal areas that stretches through Georgia, South Carolina, North...
Los Pleneros de la 21
When Juan “Juango” Gutiérrez formed Los Pleneros de la 21 in 1983, he wanted to showcase the elders of bomba y plena—the two genres that form the core of Puerto Rican traditional music—alongside younger musicians. The troupe shared a stage anywhere, from street corners, backyards, and parks, to community centers, colleges, and museums, catching the eye of the community. After...
Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne
With his dapper zoot suits, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne looks every bit the musician Living Blues hails as “bringing the piano back to the front ranks of contemporary blues.” When Kenny Wayne’s fingers hit the keys, you know you’re in the presence of a true blues boss. Though not the only blues style Kenny Wayne plays so masterfully, boogie-woogie is...
