Artists

The Richmond Folk Festival has grown to become one of Virginia’s largest and most anticipated events of the year. The Festival strives to present the very finest traditional artists from across the nation. In making its selections, a local Programming Committee is guided by the Folk and Traditional Arts definition, which is the guide for the National Council for Traditional Arts and the National Folk Festival, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts.

Festival in Schools

The Richmond Folk Festival fills auditoriums and classrooms at Richmond-area schools with performances and presentations of deeply rooted cultural expressions, shared by some of the country’s finest traditional artists. Read more about this amazing outreach program.

Applications for the 2025 Festival Now closed

2025 Richmond Folk Festival artist applications are now closed. Programming discussions take place from December to May with most decisions complete by June 1st in preparation for the annual festival. All artists must follow the same process, and those interested in applying should see How to be a performer at the Richmond Folk Festival for more details.

artists performing in 2025

Featured
The Amanda Cook Band
The Amanda Cook Band

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. 

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Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy

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. 

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Meta & the Cornerstones

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. 

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Raiatea Helm
Raiatea Helm

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.” 

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Richard Hagopian Ensemble
Richard Hagopian Ensemble

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. 

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Son Qba
Son Qba

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 Verdeciaand composer Franklin Darien Reytor on tres (triple-stringed guitar), 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.

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Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys
Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys

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. 

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Yamini Kalluri & the Kritya Music Ensemble
Yamini Kalluri & the Kritya Music Ensemble

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.

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