bluegrass
Fancy Gap, Virginia

For a musician celebrated as one of the top female singers and bandleaders in bluegrass music, it’s surprising that Amanda Cook kept her vocal talent hidden from everyone but her grandmother well into her twenties. Even her husband, a childhood friend-turned-high-school-sweetheart, had not heard her sing. Now fans around the country recognize her crystal-clear voice and passionate delivery of some of the most compelling songs in bluegrass today. The rapid success of her eponymous band has led to incredible opportunities; the band is “still riding the wave of excitement from our Opry debut last spring,” an energy they bring with them to Richmond this fall with their captivating, hard-driving sounds. 

beat ya feet dance
Washington, D.C. 

Beat Ya Feet Academy (BYFA) is a powerhouse organization that focuses on “Engaging, Educating, and Empowering” youth and adults through “beat ya feet,” D.C.’s distinctive street dance culture. Under the direction of John “Crazy Legz” Pearson III and Porche’ “Queen P” Anthony, BYFA brings an intergenerational team of youth and community dancers to represent this dance that Queen P describes as “an expression of freedom with a lot of bounce.” Like go-go, beat ya feet tends to evolve every decade, and BYFA’s presentations in Richmond will bring the audience on a journey through the vibrant history of the form, which is now on the cusp of a new era. 

jazz, R&B, and funk 
Washington, D.C. 

The Blackbyrds were at the cutting edge of jazz fusion, R&B, and funk in the 1970s, pushing the boundaries of Black popular music forward in one of the most musically fertile decades of the past century. Established in 1973 in Washington, D.C., the group was originally brought together by legendary jazz trumpeter Dr. Donald Byrd. Byrd recruited some of the most talented students from Howard University’s jazz studies program, which he had helped found a year earlier in response to demands for a shift away from a European-centric curriculum and more Black studies courses. As an academic with an active music career, Byrd wanted to “bridge the gap between academia and the real world” by exposing college students to the actual music business of touring and recording. Though the original group ended their recording career in 1980, their signature sound combining jazz techniques with R&B, polish, gritty funk, and even a little sanctified gospel became a bedrock of the emerging hip-hop movement. Keith Killgo reformed the Blackbyrds in 1999, and the band recorded Gotta Fly in 2012. Their appearance at the Richmond Folk Festival coincides with the 50th anniversary of the legendary “Rock Creek Park.” 

juré 
Opelousas, Louisiana 

The Broussard house in Opelousas, Louisiana, was always full of music. Every member of the family sang or played an instrument, and several are renowned zydeco musicians. During Lent, though, according to Millie Broussard, “You weren’t supposed to be going to the dancehalls,” or playing instrumental music—they sang juré instead. Most people outside of Louisiana have not heard of this a cappella tradition dating back to the antebellum era, and it is rarely performed outside the state, until recently. Growing up in the tradition, the Broussard Sisters—Sandra Broussard Davis, Virginia Ballard, Tavian Seraile, and sister-in-law Millie—have assumed the role of cultural stewards and ambassadors, keeping the music alive for the next generation and sharing it with audiences in Louisiana and beyond. 

Québécois 
Montréal, Québec, Canada 

Cécilia brings joy and virtuosity to the rich strands of Eastern Canada’s Québécois tradition. Each member of the trio—accordionist Timi Turmel, pianist Erin Leahy, and fiddler Louis Schryer—grew up in a musical family and brings a deep passion for the tradition to the stage. Though just three players, they create a big band sound through clever arrangements, shifting harmonies and textures, and propulsive playing. Cécilia’s music has an undeniably fresh and high-spirited sound, while honoring their roots, creating a unique and infectiously energetic musical experience. 

blues
Houston, Texas

While following in the footsteps of many Texas blues greats, Houston’s Diunna Greenleaf has her own distinctive style, an intense yet playful combination of gospel, jazz, R&B, and soul. Equal parts tremendous power and passion, her voice is also capable of subtlety and nuanced inflections. As she puts it, “If you are a Texas singer, you need to be able to sing strong and clear—people need to understand what you are saying when you’re up there. But you also need to be able to sing soft and pretty.” While the rest of the world didn’t discover Diunna until she had reached middle age, over the last two decades, she has earned numerous well-deserved awards and accolades. 

Togolese 
Lomé, Togo, by way of Washington, D.C. 

The West African nation of Togo is a bit of a musical black box, long overshadowed by nearby musical powerhouses like Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d’Ivoire. But Togo has an untapped wealth of music traditions, as well as a few breakout artists. Singer and guitarist Serge Massama Dogo, aka Dogo du Togo, is the latest Togolese artist to bring his country’s musical traditions to international stages, mixing alagaa trance music with contemporary African pop sounds to fashion a distinctive sound rooted in Togolese music and ritual. The driving alagaa rhythm, a dizzying dance between snare drum and rhythm guitar, forms the bedrock of the band’s sound. “The alagaa beat brings the energy right away,” Dogo explains. “As soon as you bring it in, it just feels different; it takes you somewhere else.” 

sacred soul and gospel
Memphis, Tennessee 

Elizabeth King is a sacred soul and gospel singer from Memphis, Tennessee, known for her powerful voice, decades of ministry through music, and a life story rivaled by few others. Born in the Mississippi Delta and raised in a family of singers and preachers, King began singing in church at the age of three, using her voice both to battle chronic illness and to express her deep faith. Now in her 70s, she has recently returned to performing professionally; listening to her music, you would never know she took a decades-long break. With Memphis as her long-time home, King combines classic gospel lyrics with electric guitars and sparse percussion on songs that exemplify the city’s blues-inflected sacred soul and gospel sound. 

classic country 
Austin, Texas

Celebrated for her profoundly observational lyrics, her “homespun sensibility,” and a voice that curls like a croon from a gramophone, Melissa Carper plays old school country music that resonates across time and place. Carper’s repertoire weaves together the threads of old-time, bluegrass, western swing, jazz, and blues that all intertwined in country music before the recording industry drew artificial lines and slapped on race-based genre labels. Veteran Nashville musician Chris Scruggs highlighted Carper’s versatile traditionalism when he dubbed her “Hill Billie Holiday,” declaring, “She’s as good as it gets. She has a quality that really transcends time and fashion.” 

reggae
New York, New York

Ever since reggae burst out of West Kingston’s shantytowns in the late 1960s, this uniquely Jamaican sound has looked to Africa for lyrical and spiritual inspiration—and it didn’t take long for it to take Africa by storm. Senegalese-born singer Meta Dia adds his voice to that diasporic Afro-Jamaican dialogue. In 2002, Dia immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York City, where he plugged directly into Harlem’s unique mix of Senegalese and Afro-Caribbean immigrants. He collaborated with various hip-hop artists, but his ears pulled him towards reggae, and in 2006 he put together Meta & the Cornerstones, forming a diverse sextet of like-minded musicians from across the city. 

Hawaiian falsetto singing
Honolulu, Hawai’i

Raiatea Helm is one of the preeminent female vocalists carrying Hawaiian music into the future while keeping the flame for its distinctive falsetto singing tradition. At age 14, gifted a CD of the legendary Lena Machado, the matriarch of Hawaiian falsetto singing, Raiatea knew she had found her calling, and she quickly became a celebrated singer of leo ki‘eki‘e (falsetto singing), and a master of the ha‘i, its striking, emotional transition from low to high registers. Raiatea’s career is distinguished not only by her prodigious talent but by her sustained investment in researching and passing on the rich legacy of the islands’ traditional music. She comes to Richmond with an ensemble of all-star musicians who help her build a sound that “stings with the nostalgia of yesterday while at the same time carrying the promise of tomorrow.” 

Armenian
Fresno, California

Richard Hagopian is America’s foremost player of the oud, a round-bodied and short-necked lute, and principal instrument in Armenian music. Widely acclaimed as a virtuosic musician, he is esteemed in diasporic Armenian communities and beyond for his dedication to preserving Armenian culture. He has conducted decades of research on Armenian music and dance, recorded several albums, and taught master classes around the country. Among his many honors, Richard received a 1989 National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship, the nation’s highest honor for folk and traditional artists. Richard has passed down his passion for Armenian music to several generations of his own family, and three generations of Hagopians will join each other on stage in Richmond. 

qawwali & khayal
Karachi, Pakistan

The Saami Brothers are from a heralded Pakistani musical family with a long lineage of master vocalists that goes back centuries. Their father, the revered Ustad Naseeruddin Saami, who, still in his 80s, has a rarely heard depth, power, and presence on stage, taught his sons from a very young age. Having learned at his feet, the Saami Brothers, along their father, represent the last living practitioners of a rarely heard 49-note microtonal vocal scale. Well-versed in several South Asian classical traditions, including qawwali and khayal, the Saami Brothers, with their father, are among the finest ensembles keeping the flame for these sublime sacred sounds.  

Hopi hoop dance 
Phoenix, Arizona 

The story of how the Sinquah family became hoop dancing legends contains a unique twist: the father learned the dance from his sons. Moontee Sinquah, now a world champion hoop dancer at the Senior level, did not pick up the hoops until he was 40, inspired by his then-teenage sons, Sampson and Scott Sixkiller Sinquah, who learned from an early age. Now these three extraordinary dancers perform together, hoping to ignite that same passion for their tradition in a new generation. Individually and together, Moontee, Sampson, and Scott have performed around the world at powwows, festivals, and even the Olympics. Now the tradition extends to a third generation as Scott’s four-year-old, Sonny, follows his relatives’ footsteps. As Sampson Sinquah says, “The hoop is a representation of the cycle of life ... there is no beginning and no ending, always ongoing.” 

Cuban son
Miami, Florida

Son Qba brings together some of Cuba’s most distinguished musical veterans to play a deep repertoire of Cuban classics. Led by bassist Cristóbal Verdecia, this Miami-based quartet specializes in son, one of the foundational sounds of all Cuban popular music. The group stands out for their commitment to keeping son alive in the 21st century by performing time-tested Cuban standards with sensitivity, reverence, and virtuosity.

zydeco
Duson, Louisiana

Terry Domingue is a native of Duson, a small community located 10 miles west of Lafayette in the heart of French Louisiana. Coming of age in this hotbed of Cajun and Creole culture, he developed a passion for zydeco. Since emerging on the scene over two decades ago with his own band, Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys, Terry has been hailed as a rising star who is carrying deeply traditional zydeco into the 21st century. When the band makes their Richmond Folk Festival debut this October, they are sure to inspire happy, infectious smiles and get attendees two-stepping on the dance floor. 

música norteña 
Los Angeles, California

Villa 5 brings youthful energy, flair, and style to música norteña, the music of their parents’ native northern Mexico. Their name is simple and direct—the band features five Villa siblings, Lizbeth, Joel, Vanessa, Iliana, and Jasmeen—but their story contains multitudes. Raised by working-class immigrant parents on a ranch in Southern California, the Villa siblings found inspiration in their cultural roots and embraced the possibility of creating their own legacy in a new home. Mostly in their early 30s, Villa 5 has built their name and reputation by imbuing deeply traditional music with the savvy visual and media sensibilities of their generation. 

Kuchipudi dance
Lansing, Michigan

As cultural traditions take root in diaspora communities, new connections between generations and cultures are both necessary and revitalizing. Right after the pandemic, acclaimed young dancer Yamini Kalluri, a master of the Kuchipudi dance of her Telugu forbearers, began a collaboration with some of the finest Carnatic musicians in the country, adding a new depth to her captivating movements. Their appearance at the Richmond Folk Festival braids together these two strands of South Indian tradition into a spellbinding presentation of their shared heritage.