John Reischman

Grammy-winning musician John Reischman has been a foundational mandolinist, composer, bandleader, and musical educator in bluegrass and North American roots and folk music since emerging from the vibrant “new acoustic” music scene of the Bay Area in the 1980s. A founding member of the groundbreaking Tony Rice Unit, Reischman’s mastery of bluegrass, old-time, swing, and multiple Latin American musical styles, coupled with an Old Masters sense of tone, taste and musicality, has brought him a global reputation as one of the finest mandolinists of his era.

Katie Glassman

Katie Glassman is a 4-time National Swing Fiddle Champion and a 2-time National Divisional Champion, making her one of the country’s most renowned and decorated Texas-style and swing fiddlers. She is also an accomplished recording artist, songwriter, and singer, spending six years with the award-winning trio The Western Flyers and winning Western Swing Female Vocalist of the Year. A sought-after educator, Katie is also the founder, owner, and primary instructor at the online fiddle academy, FiddleSchool.com, offering over 1,000 sequential instructional videos and countless webinars on fiddling and improvisation.

Laura Boosinger

Laure Boosingr has been a mentor for numerous young musicians in Western North Carolina, including Josh Goforth, with whom she has toured extensively in the U.S. and Scotland. Their music combines mountain standards, traditional ballads, and old pop songs. For decades, she has served as Master of Ceremonies for The Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, the oldest folk festival in the nation, and at Shindig on the Green every summer in downtown Asheville, NC. Laura serves as a consultant to the Blue Ridge Music Trails of North Carolina and writes and produces the podcast Down the Road.

Andrew Finn Magill

Fiddle Week coordinator Andrew Finn Magill is a Fulbright Fellow, North Carolina Arts Council Fellow, All-Ireland fiddle finalist, and 2024 Seifert Jazz violin finalist in Poland. Magill has been featured on PBS, TEDx and NPR. His 2016 album, Roots, debuted at number #46 on the folk DJ charts and he has released seven albums since. Magill grew up studying traditional Irish music, old-time, bluegrass, and swing every summer with the best fiddlers in the world at the Swannanoa Gathering. BBC Folk Musician of the year Martin Hayes calls Magill “a leading fiddler in a new generation of musicians.”

Sharon Gilchrist

Sharon Gilchrist began touring the bluegrass circuit in Texas for several years before earning a BA in Mandolin Performance at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. For decades Sharon has performed with many groundbreaking legends of acoustic music including the Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet, Scott Nygaard and John Reischman in The Harmonic Tone Revealers, Darol Anger, Tony Trischka, the California Bluegrass Reunion band, Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, Uncle Earl, and others. She is a respected and influential music educator offering private mandolin instruction and multiple online mandolin courses at Peghead Nation, as well as teaching at music camps internationally.

Joe Craven

Joe wears lots of hats. As a creative, he enjoys "playing forward" folk tradition by mashing ideas and sound tools from a variety of unexpected places, creating new music altogether. Joe's been a sideman to many stars, including Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, David Lindley, Alison Brown, Howard Levy, and Vassar Clements. As Director of RiverTunes / JAMboree Music Camps, he's presented at over 500 schools and universities. A celebrated festival emcee, Folk Alliance Far-West Performer of the Year, Swannanoa Gathering Master Music Maker, and a PBS featured artist, Joe has taught for many years at the Gathering's Fiddle Week and Contemporary Folk Week.

Alan Bibey

Since first hitting the scene in the early 1980s, Alan Bibey has made a name for himself as one of the most technically gifted mandolinists.He was an original member of such ground-breaking bands as The New Quicksilver, IIIrd Tyme Out, BlueRidge, and for the last 18 years, Alan Bibey & Grasstowne. He has been voted Mandolin Performer Of The Year by SPBGMA nine times, as well as 2019 and 2020 IBMA Mandolin Player Of The Year. Alan has held the Alan Bibey Mandolin Camp for the last 9 years, and he most recently joined the award-winning bluegrass band Balsam Range.

Darol Anger

Fiddler Darol Anger has helped drive the evolution of contemporary violin, leading and performing with numerous path-breaking ensembles such as Mr Sun, Republic Of Strings, the Turtle Island String Quartet, the David Grisman Quintet, The Duo, and Psychograss, among others. Composing and performing internationally since 1977, he has produced scores of important recordings and is considered one of the most influential fiddlers of the last fifty years. He is professor emeritus at Berklee College of Music, tours with his band Mr Sun, and operates an online fiddle school at ArtistWorks.com.