Blues
Richmond, Virginia

Blues harmonica player Andrew Alli is a Richmond native and a rising star, having just received a nomination for Best Emerging Artist by the Blues Music Association. Andrew took up music at the age of 20 after being inspired by a busker playing harmonica on the street. Deeply motivated, Andrew committed himself to learning the playing techniques and history of his newfound instrument. He soon fell in love with the blues and began studying all of the harmonica greats including Big Walter Horton, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Junior Wells, Phil Wiggins and others. He draws on these great masters while also developing his own unique style. Throughout the years he has toured with Jontavious Willis and dozens of other young blues musicians both domestically and abroad.

Puerto Rican bomba
Fredericksburg, Va and San Juan, Puerto Rico

This one-time performance unites one of Puerto Rico’s finest bomba dancers with the Fredericksburg non-profit Semilla Cultural, led by Isha M Renta Lopez.

Enslaved West Africans on Puerto Rico’s sugar plantations created the foundation of bomba in the 1600s, and the art form continues to develop, transform, and connect the island to its African heritage today. Bomba is defined by its percussion, including barriles de bomba—drums originally made from rum barrels, maracas, and the cuás (a pair of wood sticks).

Oyster Shucking Champions
Middlesex County

One of the most beloved traditions on the Virginia Folklife Stage over the past decade has been the annual “Shucking Smackdowns” between Virginia’s own superstar oyster shucking sisters Deborah Pratt and Clementine Macon Boyd. After long and remarkable careers that resulted in both sisters dominating prestigious oyster shucking contests from St. Mary’s City in Maryland to the International Oyster Opening Competition in Galway, Ireland, Deborah and Clementine have decided to hang up their knives and enjoy a much-deserved retirement.

Venezuelan and Appalachian Fusion
Durham and Raleigh, NC

Though coming from divergently different origins, Larry Bellorín and Joe Troop seemed destined to make music together. Larry Bellorín hails from Monagas, Venezuela and is a legend of Llanera, the traditional music of the Venezuelan plains. Joe Troop is from North Carolina and is a Grammy-nominated bluegrass and old-time musician. Larry was forced into exile and is an asylum seeker in North Carolina. Joe, after a decade in South America, got stranded back in his old stomping grounds in North Carolina during the pandemic. Larry works construction to make ends meet. Joe's acclaimed "Latingrass" band Che Apalache was forced into hiatus, and he shifted into action working with asylum-seeking migrants.

Trinidadian Steel Drum Septet
Capitol Heights, MD

Born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago, and a resident of Capitol Heights, Josanne Francis blends the sounds of her Caribbean roots with the urban soundscapes of Maryland as well as an eclectic mix of influences from America and abroad, all through the soothing notes of her steel pans.

Indian Carnatic Violin
Springfield, Virginia

Carnatic classical music has been the common thread connecting diverse cultural communities in South India for thousands of years. Although India had no shortage of stringed instruments played with a bow and suitable for vocal accompaniment—the ektara, dilruba, saranda and sarangi were all prevalent, albeit mainly in North Indian music—it was the European-style violin that found a natural home in the Carnatic classical music of South India. It is essentially the same instrument one would find in Western classical and traditional music, but uniquely tuned and played using an entirely different technique to suit the needs of Carnatic South Indian classical music. The violin is usually used as an accompaniment for vocal music and dancing but is also increasingly featured as a solo instrument as well.

Gospel
Richmond, Virginia and Charlotte, NC

Ken Heath hails from Petersburg, Virginia, where he was raised up to the sounds of the gospel music of the Black Holiness Church. His grandfather Moses Lee Tucker sang with numerous local gospel quartets from his rural hometown of Dinwiddie, Virginia, and eventually formed the Gospel Inheritance quartet, a much sought-after group in the region. As a young boy, Ken’s grandparents’ house became the meeting hub for many other Petersburg gospel groups including the Modernaires, The Lambs of Joy and the Petersburg Gospel Singers. Moses taught Ken’s mother and two uncles to sing, and later taught little Kenny, who was also taking up the drums while still in preschool.

Gospel
Richmond, Virginia

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 over 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.”

Bolivian and Appalachian Fusion
Loudoun County, Virginia and Washington DC

Ouros infuses deftly crafted musical composition and songwriting with impeccable musicianship. This bilingual band performs songs in both Spanish and English with rich vocal harmonies and sizzling instrumentation. The four band-members, hailing from different parts of the world with influences ranging across four continents, are deeply experienced in multiple genres including flamenco, bluegrass, jazz, Latin, and traditional American and European music.

Singer-Songwriter
Swoope, Virginia

Recently inducted to the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame, fiery roots-rock singer-songwriter Scott Miller returned to his native Virginia to tend the family farm while continuing to release and perform new music informed by that rural area, history, and Appalachia.