Banjo great Alison Brown… pushing the boundaries of folk and bluegrass

Alison Brown doesn’t play the banjo… Alison Brown plays music on the banjo. Acoustic instrumental music has never been so beautifully represented as by Alison Brown. As one of the most multi-faceted minds on today’s roots music scene, every one of Alison’s endeavors is marked by innovation, intelligence, and grace. As a banjo player, she throws out the textbook when it comes playing the banjo and the result is a sound that blends the rugged drive of bluegrass with the harmonic sensibilities of jazz, earning vast acclaim and a GRAMMY award in the process. Alison took an unusual path to becoming an internationally recognized banjoist. After completing her undergraduate studies at Harvard University and receiving an MBA from UCLA, she pursued a career in investment banking. But she missed the bluegrass music she’d grown up playing in Southern California so much that when Alison Krauss called looking for a banjo player, she made the decision to give up her Wall Street career to pursue music. She toured with Alison Krauss and Union Station, and Michelle Shocked before forming her own group, The Alison Brown Quartet, in 1993. Since that time, Alison and her band have been winning over traditionalists and mainstream music fans alike with her unique style. They have toured extensively throughout the US and abroad with stops at some of music’s most prestigious venues including The Kennedy Center, Newport Folk Festival, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, MerleFest, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Philadelphia Folk Festival, FreshGrass, The Cambridge Folk Festival (England), Celtic Connections (Scotland), Dublin National Concert Hall (Ireland), Galway Arts Festival (Ireland) and Verbier Music Festival (Switzerland). The band has also traveled to Central and South America at the invitation of the US Information Agency and to Japan as Friendship Ambassadors on behalf of the Nashville Mayor’s office to celebrate a new sister city relationship between Kamakura, Japan and…