Youth Music Festival
The Crooked Road hosts a Youth Music Festival & Competition Saturday, May 13 at the Southwest Virginia Cultural Center & Marketplace, Abingdon, Virginia. There is no admission fee, but donations are accepted, which will be split between The Crooked Road’s education programming and Junior Appalachian Musicians.
The festival prominently features a second annual youth music competition. The music competition features cash prizes for individual instruments and bands. Categories include fiddle, guitar, mandolin, clawhammer banjo, bluegrass banjo, other (instruments and dance) and band. Prizes for individual instruments are first place $75; second place $50; third place $25. The band competition prizes are $125, $100, $85.
Music competition registration begins at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 13 and the music competition begins promptly at 12 p.m. There is no entry fee for the contestants, and this is an open competition. Registration continues after the start of the competition, through 2 p.m. Full details on the entry rules and form can be found at www.thecrookedroadva.com/education.
Other activities include music workshops presented by Tyler Hughes and Jim Lloyd, and jam spaces are available throughout the SWVA Cultural Center.
The Crooked Road’s Youth Music Festival is supported by the Wayne Henderson Festival and David & Judie Reemsnyder. The Crooked Road and this project are supported [in part] by the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which receives support from the Virginia General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Support for this project also comes from an award from the National Endowment for the Arts American Rescue Plan grant program.
Artist-in-Residence applications sought
Virginia’s Heritage Music Trail: The Crooked Road is excited to announce applications are now open for the third Artist-In-Residence program for heritage musicians that reside in the Southwest Virginia region.
The Artist-In-Residence program gives local musicians a way to become an ambassador for heritage music through participating in events and educational workshops. This initiative is a year-long commitment, with a financial stipend, for the selected artist. The artist will attend various events, participate in educational opportunities, and be required to produce an original piece of music or new performance of an existing traditional piece of music for The Crooked Road use.
Musicians that specialize in a heritage music genre and live in the following counties and cities of the Southwest Virginia region are encouraged to apply: Bland, Bristol, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Floyd, Franklin, Galax, Giles, Grayson, Lee, Montgomery, Norton, Patrick, Pulaski, Radford, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe.
The application can be found on The Crooked Road’s website, www.thecrookedroadva.com under “About Us-Jobs & RFPs”. Interested parties can also contact The Crooked Road office directly at 276-492-2400, ext. 2409 or email info @the crookedroad.org for a copy of the application. Applications will be accepted through May 15, 2023.
