Wernick Method Teachers

Aaron Dorfman is a full-time freelance musician in Chicago, proud to make music education the primary focus of his career. Aaron played guitar for the well-known Chicago-based bluegrass band, Henhouse ...
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Alan Epstein has played mandolin and sung in bluegrass bands in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and New York since the 1970s. A certified Wernick Method jam teacher since 2012, he has ...
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Allie Burbrink Allie is a musician, teacher, and mom. As a founding member of the Indiana-based band The Whipstitch Sallies, she sang lead and harmony, wrote songs, and played guitar, ...
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Andy Lentz started on fiddle with the Suzuki technique, and has been jamming and performing bluegrass and other roots styles for over twenty years. Before recently relocating to Oakland CA, ...
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Annie Savage is an enthusiastic instructor and performer of bluegrass, as well as old-time and classical music. She believes that the art of music is most thoroughly enjoyed when shared with ...
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Austin Scelzo was introduced to various fiddle traditions at Mark O’Connor’s early Berklee String Camps and over time picked up all the bluegrass instruments along with singing, songwriting, and jamming. While ...
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Barry Mitterhoff has played bluegrass mandolin professionally for over 40 years, appearing in 49 states and 18 countries. He has toured with Peter Rowan, Jorma Kaukonen, Tony Trischka, Hazel Dickens, and ...
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Betsey Jacobs took piano lessons early on and as an adult picked up the guitar. After 5 years she started attending "slow jams" at a local musician's home. Though struggling ...
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Billy Lee Farmer has been playing Bluegrass and traditional music for over 30 years, and performing with several bands including “Raisin Pickers” (Michigan) and “WhoYaSay” (Colorado), as well as cajun/zydeco bands ...
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Bob Amos was the lead singer, guitarist and principal songwriter of the IBMA award-winning Front Range band from 1988-2003. The Colorado-based band toured America and Europe, and their 5 Sugar Hill ...
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Bob Barrett began playing guitar in high school more than 50 years ago. Over the years he has performed in folk, bluegrass and rock 'n roll bands. For the past ...
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Buck Thrailkill was born in Meridian, MS and started playing banjo at age 12. Mentored by his big brother and Lee Jackson (Carl Jackson’s Dad), he grew up playing all ...
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Charlotte Ivy was introduced to bluegrass in 2012 while visiting Virginia friends, which renewed her interest in playing guitar. She attended a Wernick Method workshop and from then on she ...
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Chris Armstrong is a multi-instrumentalist who has performed and taught private and group lessons for over fifteen years, and is now teaching at the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and ...
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Chris Brashear plays fiddle, mandolin and guitar and sings lead and harmony parts. With over 25 years of professional experience as a performer, producer, teacher, recording artist and songwriter, he also ...
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Chris Roszell is a recent arrival in Denver from North Carolina. He has played bluegrass banjo professionally for over 15 years with many bands including Colorado’s Blue Canyon Boys, Scott ...
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Chris Talley plays over 25 instruments, specializing in banjo, fiddle and guitar, and releasing six albums with the Chris Talley Trio. She has won numerous banjo and fiddle contests including ...
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Dan Whitener is from Washington, DC, and is currently performing on banjo in the New York / New Jersey / Pennsylvania scene. He has hit the Billboard Bluegrass charts with ...
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Dave Howard has enjoyed years of singing and playing mandolin throughout the U.S. with The 23 String Band – winners of the Louisville Music Awards Bluegrass Artist of the Year – ...
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Dave Kiphuth became well-known for his banjo work with the respected Connecticut band Apple Country, performing throughout the Northeast and South in the 1970s and 80s. He went on to work ...
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David Benway started picking rhythm guitar and singing on tailgates, fields, and around campfires some 15 years ago. Bluegrass festivals throughout New England became a passionate summertime experience, with jamming always ...
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Debbie Wagner was introduced to guitar in grade school and quickly developed a love for the instrument. She has led jams for over 10 years, teaches beginning guitar to adults, and ...
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Derwin Hinson grew up in North Carolina playing and singing in his family’s gospel band. In his early 20s he joined Charlie Louvin’s band and the next week played his first ...
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Don Julin, founder of Mandolins Heal the World, is regarded as one of the top mandolin instructors on the scene today. Don’s patient, detailed teaching style is appreciated by students ...
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Duck Adkins has performed throughout the United States and around the world, including Lincoln Center in New York, the San Francisco Wharf, and the International House of Music in Moscow ...
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Ed Harvey has been playing, writing, performing and recording music since the 1990s, mostly on acoustic guitar and upright bass. He also plays banjo, mandolin, mountain dulcimer, autoharp, and fiddle at ...
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With a Master’s in Education and 15 years of teaching math, Ellen Carlson knows what it means to be accountable for students learning what she teaches. Having started fiddle at a ...
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Ellen Carlson and Melissa Bradgon Caron co-direct the New Hampshire Fiddle Ensemble. Ellen has been performing for 35 years, currently with High Range. She teaches fiddle, guitar and mandolin, privately ...
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Erik Yates has been singing and playing the banjo for the past twenty years as a means of self-expression, a way of connecting with tradition, and surprisingly, as a way of ...
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Fred Staunton was first taken by bluegrass in 1980 while attending the Skyline Bluegrass Festival in WV, seeing and hearing John Hartford and the Osborne Brothers. Twenty years later he was ...
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Fred Staunton was first taken by bluegrass in 1980 while attending the Skyline Bluegrass Festival in WV, seeing and hearing John Hartford and the Osborne Brothers. Twenty years later he was ...
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Gabe Hirshfeld grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. At fifteen, listening to Car Talk on the radio he heard Earl Scruggs. The sound of the banjo spoke to him as no other ...
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George Welling has played guitar and bass, and sung lead and harmony with various groups over four decades in over a dozen states. For fifteen-plus years he has taught bass, rhythm guitar ...
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Gilbert Nelson has been a regular on the jam scene for 30 years, with a passion for jamming, performing and teaching a variety of instruments. Gilbert's teaching is action packed and ...
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Gilles Rézard discovered bluegrass music at 16. He started learning guitar, then fell in love with the banjo. His two solo albums and recent cover feature in Banjo Newsletter magazine ...
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Graham Sones is a more than forty-year veteran of the banjo, a Scruggs-style picker who enjoys his craft and helping students learn to play. Born in Rochester, MN with strong ...
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Gray Toney is a well-respected guitar and banjo instructor in South Mississippi. He has over 25 years’ experience teaching, and has students ranging from age 7 to 72. He currently teaches ...
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Greg McGrath has been a bluegrass musician and teacher since 1990, teaching banjo and guitar during that time. Since attending Pete Wernick’s 2007 jam camp in North Carolina, he has ...
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Harry Gambrill was bit by the bluegrass bug early and began playing the banjo at age twelve. He plays banjo with regional bluegrass band The Jersey Corn Pickers. Harry also ...
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Heidi Olsen has long been involved in the bluegrass scene in the Central New Jersey area, playing banjo with her band Heidi Olsen and The Night, and hosting the Bluegrass Jam ...
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Ira Gitlin is widely known and respected in Washington-Baltimore music circles as a versatile multi-instrumentalist, teacher, and writer. A winner of the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship at Winfield, he has ...
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Jeanette Curry began teaching 5-string banjo and guitar in the 1980s and now also teaches beginning mandolin. She has performed at bluegrass festivals and state fairs in the Midwest, and at ...
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Jeff Burke has been performing on mandolin, guitar, and banjo since 1999–a sought-after sideman who’s toured the U.S. and Europe with a variety of acoustic and bluegrass acts. A certified Wernick ...
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Jeff Elsloo has played and taught music most of his life, specializing in banjo, guitar, and steel guitar. Winning or placing in instrument contests from a young age, he progressed ...
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Jeff Harding sings and plays the guitar and dobro and has been playing and teaching bluegrass all over the world for the last 30 years. He’s performed, recorded, toured and ...
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Jenny & Matt Richardson are co-owners and head instructors at Blue Raven Music studios in Lincoln a musical environment welcoming to all. They have honed their teaching skills there for ...
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Penson String Works is the home of Jim Penson, long-time bluegrass musician, teacher, and luthier. He specializes in bluegrass banjo, having played since the 1970s, with The Bee Creek Boys, ...
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Jimmy Heffernan is a multi-instrumentalist, specializing in resonator “dobro” guitar. In bluegrass and country music for over 40 years, he has performed and recorded with top names such as Larry ...
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Jodi Harbin is a career musician who teaches mandolin, guitar, banjo and bass. She was the founder of the Colorado bluegrass band, Lonesome Traveler, and has continued her involvement in the ...
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Joe Ross is a multi-instrumentalist who has performed and recorded since the 1970s in bluegrass and other styles, with such bands as the High Mountain Ramblers, Sagegrass, Cold Thunder, Umpqua ...
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Joel Denman has a passion for bluegrass that began as a teenager growing up in Colorado. He actively gigs on fiddle, mandolin, guitar and baritone vocals, and was a public ...
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John David is a master on banjo, mandolin, dobro, guitar, and harmonica. He also plays fiddle and bass. He toured with music luminaries the Limeliters, performed with Leon Redbone, and ...
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John Holenko runs Charleston, SC’s popular folk music school Hungry Monk Music — a place to gather with friends and be encouraged to explore a lifelong love of music. He ...
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John Treacy of Olympia, Washington plays mandolin and guitar and sings lead and harmony vocals. Since the ‘90s he has performed in numerous bands, playing a mix of old time, bluegrass, ...
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Jonas Friddle began playing bluegrass guitar and mandolin as a student at Berea College, and in the fifteen years since has added the fiddle and clawhammer banjo. He has performed ...
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Joshua Adkisson plays 11 instruments. He discovered bluegrass after the death of his parents, finding a stash of bluegrass albums and listening to their records to feel closer to them ...
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June Crosby and Jamis Johnson are both certified Wernick Method teachers. June Crosby has traveled the world sharing music with her fiddle, having toured Europe with her family Bluegrass band, and ...
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KC Groves is an accomplished instrumentalist (mandolin, guitar, bass), vocalist and songwriter at the forefront of Colorado’s bluegrass scene. As bandleader of the popular group Uncle Earl for over a decade, ...
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Classically trained on piano, Kelly Bogan was swayed into folk music in high school after hearing the likes of: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Gordon Lightfoot, Flatt & Scruggs, and many other ...
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Kevin Slick has been performing, writing, and recording music for over 35 years. A talented multi-instrumentalist (guitar, mandolin, banjo), he has recorded over 30 albums as a solo artist or ...
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Kristin Scott & Wayne Benson are both certified Wernick Method teachers. Kristin is 4-time IBMA Banjo Player of the Year and known for her taste, timing, and tone, and for being ...
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Larry Kernagis was raised during the folk revival era of the 60s, cutting his chops on Flatt & Scruggs and the Kingston Trio. Eventually, he became a banjo instructor at ...
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Leigh Nelson came to bluegrass music in the 80s when friends were jamming and she wanted in on the fun. Leigh learned by ear and developed her skills at jam ...
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Len Lawhon has been playing bluegrass and old-time music for over 30 years. He leads and plays mandolin for the old-time string band, Mulberry Jam and leads bluegrass and old-time music jams ...
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Leslie Dare & Susan West have found great synergy in working together to teach others the essentials of bluegrass jamming. Both grew up with music but after being musically inactive for ...
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Liam Purcell plays all the bluegrass instruments, sings lead and harmony and writes songs. Having grown up in Deep Gap, NC a mile from Doc and Merle Watson, he takes pride ...
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Lisa Brown Bushman has been singing and playing music by ear for as long as she can remember, and teaching and performing professionally since high school. She has played fiddle tunes ...
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Lydia Conway plays fiddle, guitar and mandolin. Instilled with a passion for music at an early age, she is dynamic performer and a fun teacher. Studying classical violin early on led to ...
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Lynn Young is a veteran musician and Wernick Method jam teacher who has played in bluegrass and old-time string bands around the country during his 38 years with the US ...
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Maggie Moore is a singer/songwriter with Appalachian roots, growing up in Virginia and later moving to West Virginia and Colorado. A music history major, she has sung in gospel, folk, rock, ...
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Martin Gilmore is a bluegrass musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and music educator based in Denver, Colorado. He is a founding member of the bluegrass band Long Road Home, an acclaimed solo ...
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Matt Richardson has played, performed and recorded music most of his life. His first love was rock guitar, playing in blues and rock bands before being drawn back to the ...
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Max Schwartz is from Berkeley CA, currently attending the U. of Miami Frost School of Music on scholarship. He is acclaimed as both a bluegrass and jazz musician, having won ...
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Melissa Bragdon Caron is a versatile fiddler and music teacher, classically trained and having studied music education. Since moving to Portland in 2003 she has been teaching and playing fiddle, ...
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Michael Jockel began playing music as a teenager, in various Rock, Folk, and Country groups. After discovering bluegrass and the 5-string banjo at age 18, he has now performed on ...
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Michelle Wallace has been active in bluegrass music for more than 20 years. Promoting bluegrass music in eastern Kentucky has been a way of life and goal for her. Hosting the ...
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Nate Schwartz and Grant Milliken have played music together since 2010, performing bluegrass as well as jazz, rock, and R&B in some of LA’s most prestigious venues. Nate grew up playing ...
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Pat Carine has been teaching private lessons in his home area of Medway for over ten years, on banjo, guitar, mandolin and fiddle. He plays banjo in a traditional bluegrass ...
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Paul Dube and Erin Dube teach as a team. Paul plays bluegrass, folk, blues, Irish, Cajun and old-time music on guitar, accordion, mandolin and harmonica. He has played in numerous performing ...
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Pete Wernick of Niwot, CO is renowned worldwide for his accomplishments and contributions to bluegrass music: the hot-picking force in several trend-setting bands including Hot Rize, innovative teacher and author, songwriter, ...
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Peter Ruby started guitar in his teens and discovered bluegrass in the 1990s, gaining experience while living in Australia and the U.S., as well as in his Czech homeland. In the ...
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Petr Brandejs has been voted Banjo Player of the Year three times in the Czech Republic. He now performs with the traditional Czech band Bluegrass Cwrkot, his own Petr Brandejs ...
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Pierre Bastide (aka ResoMan) has picked the banjo and dobro for many years and plays with Franco-américain, Silkwood, Pierre Bastide Syndicate, and other bands. He also enjoys playing swing, blues, country, ...
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Rex Kerbs has attended bluegrass festivals and played banjo at jams in the Pacific Northwest for more than 15 years. Jamming with friends has led to informal bands — the ...
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Rick Sparks is equally at home playing banjo, guitar, mandolin, dobro and pedal steel guitar, and singing either lead or harmony. He has developed a reputation as an outstanding teacher ...
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Scott Hopkins grew up hearing bluegrass recordings in his home. At 15 he took up banjo and also joined the school band on tuba, fully immersing himself in the study of ...
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Sébastien Ferry started playing music at age 11, learning trumpet and guitar (fingerpicking, jazz, blues, rock). He plays styles from traditional Celtic music to folk, gypsy jazz and bluegrass using ...
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Sue Coulter is a member of Colorado’s Bluegrass Hall of Honor, a multi-instrumentalist, and an experienced, much-loved teacher. She has started and guided bluegrass jams for over 25 years, and ...
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Tom Behan teaches and performs in the Capital District area of Upstate NY and has been playing the guitar and banjo for over 40 years. He currently holds down the ...
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Tom Morris has been playing guitar and bass for over 55 years. He also plays banjo and has played mandolin with the “Good Tyme String Band” for over 15 years ...
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Vera Vann-Wilson plays guitar, banjo, bass, mandolin, fiddle, and Dobro, and has appeared on the Lester Flatt Show and the old and new Grand Ole Opry stages. After a 20-year hiatus ...
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Vince May grew up around bluegrass, attending festivals and shows, and got his first dobro over 30 years ago. A 26-year Army veteran, he's jammed in Baghdad and played with ...
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