Béla Fleck, front right, rehearses with campers at the 2024 Blue Ridge Banjo Camp. Photo by Seyl Park
A unique collaboration between Brevard Music Center (BMC) and Mountain Song Productions brings immersive music camps and concerts to the Western North Carolina community. On consecutive weekends in August, two celebrated musicians of roots music—Béla Fleck and Casey Driessen—will headline culminating concerts for two of the camps.
BMC has hosted the Mountain Song Festival for the last 20 years, so it was natural that the two organizations would seek further projects together. John Felty and Woody Platt are partners in Mountain Song Productions. When they came up with the idea of holding instrument camps, BMC was a natural venue choice and Fleck was the talent they sought for a banjo camp. “So from the success of Blue Ridge Banjo Camp, we next brought in Bryan Sutton, an Asheville native and one of the most revered acoustic guitar players, to host and present the Blue Ridge Guitar Camp,” says Felty. “This led to Casey Driessen’s Blue Ridge Fiddle Camp. So it’s been an evolution of sorts, but it fits nicely with BMC. Their campus and venue are world-class and it makes for a superb environment and an incredible experience for the campers and concert goers.”
Campers rehearse near Lake Milner during the 2024 Blue Ridge Banjo Camp. Photo by Seyl Park
On Saturday, August 16, at 7:30 p.m., the BMC hosts Béla Fleck’s Blue Ridge Banjo Concert. Fleck has garnered 19 GRAMMY Awards throughout his musical career. It will be, says Jason Posnock, BMC’s CEO and president, “an extraordinary concert filled with virtuoso musicianship and more than 100 banjo players on stage at the same time.” Instructors, guest artists and camp participants will perform. “All of the concerts are more like a variety show featuring the hosts and instructors as well as some of the campers,” says Felty. “There are unique collaborations and ensembles, and they are some of my favorite performances. You won’t see this kind of presentation really anywhere else.”
Camp participants applied for spots in camps in the spring. “The Blue Ridge Music Camps are designed for intermediate to advanced and professional-level players who are curious and adventurous, and want to find new ways of learning and improving beyond their current level,” Posnock says. “Campers should be comfortable learning by ear, improvising and reading charts, and should be prepared to stretch their creative comfort zone.”
The Blue Ridge Fiddle Camp was added last year. “Casey Driessen had already built a reputation as an inventive educator and forward-thinking fiddler,” says Posnock, “and bringing him on to develop a camp focused on rhythm, style and technology made perfect sense. These camps complement each other while highlighting the unique voices and instruments that define acoustic music.”
Fiddle Forward, the culminating concert for the Fiddle Camp will be held Sunday, August 24, at 7:30 p.m. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, bluegrass fiddler Driessen plays acoustic and five-string violin, and sings.
“Camps like these bring new people to campus, foster creative exploration and give us another way to connect with our community,” says Posnock. “Whether someone is here to study, teach, perform or simply listen, we believe in the transformative power of shared musical experiences. These programs help make that mission more accessible, more inclusive and more rooted in the music of this place.”
Learn more and purchase tickets at BrevardMusic.org.
