Hip Hop and R&B 
Richmond, VA 

Alexander Mack is a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, producer and performer from Richmond whose music bridges generations through soul, movement and storytelling. 

Bluegrass
Charlottesville, VA

 The Bluegrass Destroyers story begins in 2018, when a group of ace musicians launched a weekly show at a restaurant in Charlottesville, VA. Adam Larrabee (banjo), Darrell Muller (bass), Jay Starling (dobro), and Andy Thacker (mandolin) are all members of Love Canon, the pathbreaking bluegrass interpreters of 1980s pop hits.

Ukrainian/Appalachian
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

There are two things you can count on every year at the Center for Cultural Vibrancy Stage: the Legendary Ingramettes will always bring the weekend to a rousing close on Sunday, and the stage will always showcase the latest musical collaboration from Virginia’s virtuosic musical mad scientist and multi-instrumentalist, Danny Knicely.

Visionary Folk
Durham, North Carolina

Photo courtesy of artist

Multi-instrumentalist Joe Troop grew up in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and became immersed in bluegrass and old-time music. His path then took him abroad to Spain, Japan, and ultimately Buenos Aires, where he spent roughly a decade as a musician and teacher. In Argentina, he founded Che Apalache with three of his students, developing what became known as “Latingrass:” Latin American folk influences played through the instrumentation and vocabulary of an Appalachian string band.

Gospel
Richmond, VA

Richmond, Virginia, has long been celebrated as a “Gospel town” for its legacy of vibrant Black gospel groups and choirs. Among the city’s generations of countless groups, the Legendary Ingramettes have become widely considered the city’s “First Family of Gospel,” uplifting audiences for more than six decades while becoming beloved cultural icons in the community. Music is one of many forms of ministry they have practiced, and the one they are most famous for. The storied group was originally formed by evangelist “Mama” Maggie Ingram, a single mother who steadfastly taught her five small children to accompany her as her “Ingramettes.”

In 1974, Richmond gave the world a musical icon. Michael Eugene Archer, known to the world as D’Angelo, was raised in Richmond’s Southside in a deeply musical Pentecostal family surrounded by the rich cultural and musical landscape. Both his father and grandfather were preachers, and by the age of three, his extraordinary musical gifts were already apparent.

Caymanian kitchen dance music
Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands

Swanky Kitchen Band is on a quest to revive the traditional music of the Cayman Islands. Set amidst the blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, the three tiny islands are home to kitchen dance music, an infectiously danceable fiddle-driven style. The kitchen dance sound, created through a crossroads of European and African influences, nearly disappeared save for the efforts of Swanky Kitchen Band, the last of the Caymanian kitchen bands. “Swanky,” as the group is known to its fan base, was founded by fiddler Samuel Rose, at a time when development and societal change nearly ended the genre. The band adds a modern twist to their Caymanian heritage with more contemporary instruments, creating a 10-piece powerhouse dance band.