Nashville, TN -- The Foundation for Bluegrass Music hired Nancy Cardwell as their administrator in August, as they are gearing up for a full slate of events planned for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC, Sept. 27 – Oct. 1, 2016.
“I’m excited about working with the Foundation,” said Cardwell, who was on the ground floor of Bluegrass in the Schools operations from 1994-2012 during her stint at IBMA as Special Projects Director. “There’s an enormous amount of potential for this group to do a tremendous amount of good with bluegrass music, for current and future generations.” Cardwell also served on staff at IBMA from 2012 through the spring of 2015 as executive director of the trade association for bluegrass music.
The Foundation for Bluegrass Music is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization created in 2007 (by IBMA) to support bluegrass music-related educational, literary, artistic and historic preservation activities.
“If bluegrass music were a town, we would be your community foundation,” Cardwell explains. “We’re the ‘United Way’ of bluegrass music—a place to donate funds and set up endowments that will be used for bluegrass-related programs and projects that will keep the genre alive and growing for decades to come. As Mr. Monroe said, this music is powerful. We want to save the world with bluegrass music.”
The Foundation for Bluegrass Music will host a booth in the IBMA Business Conference exhibit hall Wed. – Saturday, Sept. 28-Oct. 1, and also a booth in the Red Hat Amphitheater during the Wide Open Bluegrass festival, Friday and Saturday, Sept. 30-Oct. 1.
On Friday, Sept. 30 from 10-11:50 a.m. on the Workshop stage at the Raleigh Convention Center, Foundation board member Fred Bartenstein will moderate a Bluegrass Music Higher Education Forum, featuring presentations and some live music from college ensembles at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, TN, directed by Daniel Boner; Morehead University in Morehead, KY, directed by Raymond McLain; Denison University in Denison, OH, directed by Andy Carlson; and UNC, and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, directed by Russell Johnson.
Current and retired professors involved in college-level programs will gather for a symposium over lunch Friday, Sept. 30, to discuss curriculum, common challenges and goals, and new trends in bluegrass music education.
The 2016 recipients of $10,000 in Foundation for Bluegrass Music grants will be announced by board chair, Mark Panfil at IBMA’s Special Awards Luncheon on Thursday afternoon, Sept. 29.
The Foundation for Bluegrass Music will host a College Band Showcase on the Wide Open Bluegrass Youth Stage, located just outside the front entrance of the Raleigh Convention Center, on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 30-Oct. 1, from 6-9 p.m. each night. Bands from the universities mentioned above will perform, and guest emcees will include Alan Tompkins (Bloomin’ Bluegrass Festival), Mike Tatar (Summergrass Bluegrass Festival), Kitsy Kuykendall (Bluegrass Unlimited), and Katy Daley (WAMU’s BluegrassCountry.org).
Current board members of the Foundation for Bluegrass Music include Mark Panfil, a retired music educator from Buffalo, NY (chair), Peter D’Addario, D’Addario Strings (vice-chair); Yvonne Tatar, a journalist and educator (secretary); Richard Spratt, retired human resources executive and philanthropist (treasurer); Fred Bartenstein, retired meeting facilitator who guided strategic plans and programs for IBMA and Leadership Bluegrass, among numerous other clients over the years; Tim Stafford, Blue Highway; Peter Salovey, president of Yale University; Kitsy Kuykendall, Bluegrass Unlimited; and Stephanie Taylor, fiddler/entertainment business attorney with Stites & Harbison PLLC in Nashville.
For more information on grants, or on how you can support the Foundation for Bluegrass Music at
4206 Gallatin Pike, Nashville, TN 37216, www.BluegrassFoundation.org