Banjo Masters In-the-Round at Caffe Lena - 05/04/2012

Featuring Bob Altschuler, Julie Duggan, Dave Kiphuth, Chris Leske, & Dan Hubbs

This Summit brings together the best of the best of our regional banjo players to show you the instrument's amazing versatility on old time and bluegrass classics to contemporary originals. Bob Altschuler took up the banjo forty years ago, and has developed a distinctive style, merging traditional bluegrass banjo with blues, swing and other genres. He has taught banjo for many years, published instructional material for Mel Bay and Angie's Banjo Silver Strings, and performed on radio and television commercials. He has been playing with Dyer Switch Band since 1996 and has been an in-demand instructor for private students and music camps for more than thirty years. Julie Duggan has been enchanted by the sound of traditional rural stringband music for over twenty-five years. She is an avid collector of antique open-back banjos. She has appeared as a performer and teacher at numerous festivals and jams , where her unique, rhythmic old-time style has wide appeal and her excellent teaching has launched many new banjo players. David Kiphuth has been a fixture in the Northeast bluegrass scene since the early '80s, playing in bands with the likes of John Rossbach, Stacy Phillips, Harvey Reid, and John Kirk & Trish Miller. Currently his main band is Red Hen Stringband, an innovative Old Time-Bluegrass-Celtic fusion ensemble. He enjoys Round Peak-inspired claw hammer and bluegrass styles and is an active promoter and teacher of banjo. Chris Leske, perhaps best known to area audiences for his years with the McKrells, started winning banjo contests across the Northeast at age 13 and started touring internationally at 21. He has performed with Allison Krauss, Bill Keith, Del McCoury and Travis Tritt, among many other country and bluegrass greats. Dan Hubbs took up the banjo after visiting his grandmother's farm in County Kerry in 1976. He plays Irish music on the four string Epiphone he inherited from his great uncle, and old time music and fiddle tunes on a Bart Reiter five string. He has performed at Caffe Lena many times with Loon, Dry Bones Band, and with fiddler Frank Orsini.