|
The 2026 Banjo Gathering will be held in Gaithersburg, Maryland from Thursday, November 5 to Sunday, November 8, at the Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center.
We are thrilled to return to Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area to celebrate the banjo's early roots in the Chesapeake region, the area's sustained history of the banjo, and the banjo's central role in D.C.'s bluegrass scene.
The Gathering consists of three full days of presentations, exhibitions, and a banjo marketplace for studying, buying, selling, and trading historical and vintage banjos, parts, and related items. We also have banjos from some of the world’s finest instrument makers available to view and buy/trade. Since 1998, the Banjo Gathering has been the platform for banjo collectors, researchers, instrument builders, and musicians to share new scholarship and findings about the banjo as a historical, cultural, and built object. |
Registration
2026 Registration -- $250.00: Full Access to the 2026 Banjo Gathering, including live presentations, virtual recordings, special presentations, concerts, and more!
Virtual Access-- $150.00: Post-event access to presentation recordings of the 2026 Banjo Gathering
If you are a student, working musician or instrument builder, or otherwise need special pricing, please email email us at thebanjogathering [at] gmail.com or send us a message under the "Contact" tab.
Hotel Information
The event will take place at the Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center. Rooms are between $189 and $219 a night for double occupancy, king bed and two double bed rooms available. Click here to reserve a room. Please note 10/07/2026 is the last day to reserve rooms at the group rate.
Presentations & Panels
Thursday, November 5, 2026
10:00 AM-2:00 PM -- SET UP @ Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center
1:15 PM-1:45 PM -- WELCOME @ Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center.
1:45 PM-2:30 PM --James Lee "Jimmie" Strother: A Banjoist of Piedmont Virginia - Gregg Kimball - John Lomax recorded James Lee "Jimmie" Strother at the Virginia State Prison Farm in 1936 for the Library of Congress. These fifteen recordings--the majority on banjo--represent the repertoire of an early Virginia songster from the Piedmont region born in 1881. Based on Kimball's book Searching for Jimmie Strother (UVA Press, 2025), this presentation will explore Strother's life, his songs, and his legacy. Strother's songs have been covered by Jefferson Airplane, Mike Seeger, and more recently by Dom Flemons and Corey Harris. The presentation will include audio recordings of Strother's songs and a wealth of information on his life and times.
2:30 PM-3:00 PM -- Disjointed Crossroads Lead to the Library of Congress and Stellar Banjo Surprises - Cece Conway
3:00 PM-3:45 PM – BREAK/ DISPLAY TIME*
3:45 PM-4:30 PM -- A Bridge to Nowhere: An Exploration of Banjo Bridge Design Past and Present - Patrick David Sawyer - No component in banjo construction is smaller or more argued over than the bridge, yet it remains one of the most critical drivers of tone, volume, and playability. This presentation sets out to examine why, and whether a century of innovation has actually moved the needle. We survey historic and modern bridge patents, tracing how design philosophy and tonal claims have evolved over more than a century of American instrument making. Along the way, we take an honest look at whether claims of tonal improvement are supported by evidence or have always been more about marketing. Attendees will get a detailed look at how bridges are built, with direct comparisons between historic and current construction methods. We will examine the key design elements that have defined bridge making across generations and explore why certain principles have proven durable enough that builders keep returning to them decade after decade. The presentation closes with an introduction to Pisgah Banjo Company's Falcon Bridge, a CNC-precise reimagining of a classic five-footed design using modern materials and manufacturing, offered as a case study in applying old ideas with new tools.
4:30 PM-5:15 PM – Banjonomics: Trends and Tastes of the Vintage Banjo Market - Ryan Yarmel of Bernunzio Instruments will offer an evaluation of current retail trends in the vintage banjo market, including historical sales data analysis, price comparison of "originals" to reproductions, commentary on collecting/collections/Post-Tariff pricing impacting vintage values, and current tastes of "new" collectors/players. The presentation will also include some background on Bernunzio Uptown Music, and predictions on future trends.
5:15PM - DINNER (on your own)/ DISPLAY TIME*/ SOCIAL*
Friday, November 6, 2026
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM - Field Trip to the Library of Congress American Folklife Exhibit and Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture
3:00 PM–3:20 PM - DISPLAY TIME*
3:30 PM–4:00 PM - Understanding Scruggs-Style Banjo Playing - Ira Gitlin - The rolling of Scruggs-style banjo is, for most people, the signature sound of bluegrass music. This presentation will explain some of the style's essential technical and musical features, and how it facilitates improvisation. At a basic level, Scruggs-style playing shares its right-hand technique with the "classic" banjo playing of the late 19th century, but has evolved a repertoire of picking patterns that can be combined to spin out a kaleidoscopic concatenation of notes. Gitlin will illustrate how repeated notes and filler notes work together to create the illusion of sustain, how common licks and phrases can be understood as banjo representations of simple melodic ideas, and how banjo players use these musical features to improvise solos and backup. He will also attempt to explain the limitations of this technique--especially for fast, scale-based melodies like those found in many fiddle tunes--and how Scruggs-style players work around those limitations.
4:00 PM–4:30 PM - Music by the Masses & Bloodthirsty Hands- Newly Discovered Banjo History from Appomattox, Virginia - David Wooldridge - Virginia After 30 years of historical research, David Wooldridge, Park Ranger/ Curator at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, shares new banjo knowledge and efforts by the National Park that expand the story of the banjo at Appomattox beyond Joel Sweeney. Story highlights include: Uncle Eph, the voice that heard Dennis play, Archibald Ferguson, the unnamed African American banjoists, Miss Zoo, the Appomattox- D.P. Diuguid connection and a Sweeney tale of murder and grave robbery on the Appomattox banjo landscape.
4:30 PM–5:15 PM - Performing the Banjo Before Minstrelsy - Kristina Gaddy - This presentation examines white performers and their use of the banjo as a prop to evoke Blackness before the emergence of Blackface Minstrelsy in the 1830s, and the ways in which transcribed music and song sought to emulate Black banjo playing in the Caribbean and North America. I will talk about the song "Sabinah," performed by white Creole Samuel Augustus Matthews in many places in the Caribbean in the late 18th and early 19th century; Charles Dibdin's "The Bonja Song" performed in London in the late 18th century; and Graupner's "The African Dance," published between 1805 and 1810 in Boston. I will explore how these songs attempted to emulate Black music making, while in reality they were setting up musical and performance stereotypes that would become integral to the performance in Blackface Minstrelsy.
5:15 PM–7:00 PM - DINNER (on your own)/ DISPLAY TIME*
7:00 PM–7:30 PM - Future Springs From the Past - Amina Thiam - This research connects the rich cultural traditions of medieval Senegambia to the cultures developed within black communities during the mid-1700s in the Maryland province. The valiant efforts of enslaved banjoists and artisans were direct attacks to white capitalist authority in the Mid-Atlantic British colonies. Thiam argues that early banjo players flouted the laws of white authority and displayed musical performance, showcasing their unique, emerging Afro-American identities rooted in their direct retention and reinvention of their sacred skill and affinity for strings that came from home. By examining Black patterns of migration in multiple directions, the brutal reality and deadly abuses of enslavement in Maryland, and reformulated African musical traditions in the colonies, researchers can uncover Black resistance efforts across the Atlantic and into the present day.
7:30 PM - 8:45 PM Screening of "Boil That Cabbage Down" Film and Filmmaker Q&A - Filmmaker Candace Williamson will be in conversation with Alexis Ojeda-Brown, a museum professional and organizer of the Maryland and DC Black Banjo Reclamation Project meetups.
8:45 PM - SOCIAL*
Saturday, November 7, 2025
10:00 AM–10:45 AM - Framus Banjo Made for Derroll Adams - Gérard DE SMAELE - On the European continent, at the dawn of the folk revival, Derroll Adams (Portland, Oregon, 1925 – Antwerp, Belgium, 2000) became an influential singer, story teller and banjo player who’s European career began in England, in a close collaboration with singer-guitarist Jack Elliott. In 2019, I’ve given to the Brussel’s Musical Instrument Museum a banjo representing the first version of the instrument made for him by FRAMUS in 1973. In November 2025, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist, that banjo and the personal instrument used by Derroll Adams were on display at the MiM, Brussels.
10:45 AM–11:30 AM - Defining 'Black Banjo': Toward Culturally Responsive Pedagogy - Joseph Z. Johnson - This presentation is based on Johnson's research and public work as a Black banjo fellowship recipient, teaching banjo classes that center Black experiences with Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, and teaching banjo history to the second cohort of fellows. It introduces readers to the Black Banjo and Fiddle Fellowship in Oakland, California. Further, given the historical and interracial complexity of the banjo’s use during the long 20th century, the essay outlines tensions that rise with the concept of “Black banjo” classes in the 21st century. It combines authetnography, oral history, and participant observation to broaden the scope of culturally responsive banjo education, working against previous frameworks of American traditional music education. Ultimately, the essay names “Black banjo” as a contemporary political enterprise, rather than a purely historical phenomena.
11:30AM - 12:15 PM - The Banjo and the Furnace: Mount Clare and the Dawn of American Music - Brad Rogers - Baltimore’s Mount Clare mansion is a historic colonial house that once oversaw a vast industrial plantation powered by enslaved labor. There are now tantalizing clues about the cultural and religious lives of the enslaved people who lived there, suggesting a continuous banjo musical tradition that connects Mount Clare all the way to the famed Snowden Family Band. This further establishes Baltimore as a crucial city in the history of the banjo.
12:15 PM–2:30 PM - LUNCH (on your own)/ DISPLAY TIME*
2:30 PM–3:15 PM - Banjos & Brahmins: The Banjo in Boston High Society - Roger Michel - This presentation explores the banjo's extraordinary Boston history. Through the presentation of instruments, artworks, photographs and early sound recordings, Michel takes a close look at the high quality instruments produced in Boston from makers like Fairbanks, Cole, Vega and Thompson & Odell, and examines both the extent to which these beautiful banjos became an important part of the life of Boston's high society women and the cultural forces that drove this surprising phenomenon.
3:15 PM–4:00 PM - Brown & Boucher's Banjo Building - Pete Ross and Jim Bollman - This presentation explores the characteristics of Levi Brown and William Boucher's banjos, both produced in Baltimore in the 1840s-1850s. Pete's standing theory about Levi Brown was that he took his inspiration from William Boucher's “rabbit ear” period. Pete would explain his thoughts, supported by dates, images and "The Pastoral Visit," which most people besides Pete and Jim still think is a Boucher although we think is a Brown. Pete ends his portion with the idea that “there must’ve been at least one Brown banjo that was a closer copy and included the Boucher rabbit ear peghead.” Pete will then hand it off to Jim, for a big reveal.
4:00 PM–4:45 PM - Sumter Rag: The Banjo Music of China Poplin, Edna Poplin, and Clint Barwick - Scott Stegall - This presentation considers the vibrant two-finger banjo styles of siblings Hunter "China" Poplin and Edna Poplin Shivers, alongside Clint Barwick, an inheritor and proponent of their music. Based on historical research and fieldwork I conducted with Clint Barwick and Edna’s daughter, Laura LeGrand, the music of the Poplin Family and Clint Barwick offers proof that old-time banjo styles flourished in the Sandhills and Midlands of South Carolina, refuting the myth that old time music existed in isolation in Appalachia. Ultimately, the breadth and depth of their music reframes old-time banjo playing not as an internally homogeneous tradition, but as a mosaic of individual expressions and sensibilities—personified by the trio's interest in a wide variety of repertoire choices and banjo playing techniques.
5:00 PM–7:30 - DINNER (on your own)
**5:00 PM–7:30 PM - Big Howdy Bluegrass Showcase @ Hank Dietle's Tavern - This auxiliary event is a chance for visitors to the DC area to experience an intimate bluegrass show at one of Montgomery Country's last remaining roadhouses. Big Howdy is one of DC's premier bluegrass bands, with Dede Wyland on guitar and vocals, Randy Barrett on vocals and banjo, Ira Gitlin on bass and Tom McLaughlin on mandolin. Tickets are limited and it will sell out, so if you are interested in attending, buy your tickets now! Hank Dietle's is an 18-minute drive from the Gaithersburg Marriott.**
7:30 PM–SOCIAL*
Sunday, November 8, 2025
10:00 AM–11:00 AM - Clean Up
11:00 AM–1:00 PM - Brunch & Jam
*Throughout the event, participants can display, buy, trade, and sell banjos and banjo ephemera, or just hang out and look at and play all the banjos.
10:00 AM-2:00 PM -- SET UP @ Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center
1:15 PM-1:45 PM -- WELCOME @ Gaithersburg Marriott Washingtonian Center.
1:45 PM-2:30 PM --James Lee "Jimmie" Strother: A Banjoist of Piedmont Virginia - Gregg Kimball - John Lomax recorded James Lee "Jimmie" Strother at the Virginia State Prison Farm in 1936 for the Library of Congress. These fifteen recordings--the majority on banjo--represent the repertoire of an early Virginia songster from the Piedmont region born in 1881. Based on Kimball's book Searching for Jimmie Strother (UVA Press, 2025), this presentation will explore Strother's life, his songs, and his legacy. Strother's songs have been covered by Jefferson Airplane, Mike Seeger, and more recently by Dom Flemons and Corey Harris. The presentation will include audio recordings of Strother's songs and a wealth of information on his life and times.
2:30 PM-3:00 PM -- Disjointed Crossroads Lead to the Library of Congress and Stellar Banjo Surprises - Cece Conway
3:00 PM-3:45 PM – BREAK/ DISPLAY TIME*
3:45 PM-4:30 PM -- A Bridge to Nowhere: An Exploration of Banjo Bridge Design Past and Present - Patrick David Sawyer - No component in banjo construction is smaller or more argued over than the bridge, yet it remains one of the most critical drivers of tone, volume, and playability. This presentation sets out to examine why, and whether a century of innovation has actually moved the needle. We survey historic and modern bridge patents, tracing how design philosophy and tonal claims have evolved over more than a century of American instrument making. Along the way, we take an honest look at whether claims of tonal improvement are supported by evidence or have always been more about marketing. Attendees will get a detailed look at how bridges are built, with direct comparisons between historic and current construction methods. We will examine the key design elements that have defined bridge making across generations and explore why certain principles have proven durable enough that builders keep returning to them decade after decade. The presentation closes with an introduction to Pisgah Banjo Company's Falcon Bridge, a CNC-precise reimagining of a classic five-footed design using modern materials and manufacturing, offered as a case study in applying old ideas with new tools.
4:30 PM-5:15 PM – Banjonomics: Trends and Tastes of the Vintage Banjo Market - Ryan Yarmel of Bernunzio Instruments will offer an evaluation of current retail trends in the vintage banjo market, including historical sales data analysis, price comparison of "originals" to reproductions, commentary on collecting/collections/Post-Tariff pricing impacting vintage values, and current tastes of "new" collectors/players. The presentation will also include some background on Bernunzio Uptown Music, and predictions on future trends.
5:15PM - DINNER (on your own)/ DISPLAY TIME*/ SOCIAL*
Friday, November 6, 2026
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM - Field Trip to the Library of Congress American Folklife Exhibit and Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture
3:00 PM–3:20 PM - DISPLAY TIME*
3:30 PM–4:00 PM - Understanding Scruggs-Style Banjo Playing - Ira Gitlin - The rolling of Scruggs-style banjo is, for most people, the signature sound of bluegrass music. This presentation will explain some of the style's essential technical and musical features, and how it facilitates improvisation. At a basic level, Scruggs-style playing shares its right-hand technique with the "classic" banjo playing of the late 19th century, but has evolved a repertoire of picking patterns that can be combined to spin out a kaleidoscopic concatenation of notes. Gitlin will illustrate how repeated notes and filler notes work together to create the illusion of sustain, how common licks and phrases can be understood as banjo representations of simple melodic ideas, and how banjo players use these musical features to improvise solos and backup. He will also attempt to explain the limitations of this technique--especially for fast, scale-based melodies like those found in many fiddle tunes--and how Scruggs-style players work around those limitations.
4:00 PM–4:30 PM - Music by the Masses & Bloodthirsty Hands- Newly Discovered Banjo History from Appomattox, Virginia - David Wooldridge - Virginia After 30 years of historical research, David Wooldridge, Park Ranger/ Curator at Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, shares new banjo knowledge and efforts by the National Park that expand the story of the banjo at Appomattox beyond Joel Sweeney. Story highlights include: Uncle Eph, the voice that heard Dennis play, Archibald Ferguson, the unnamed African American banjoists, Miss Zoo, the Appomattox- D.P. Diuguid connection and a Sweeney tale of murder and grave robbery on the Appomattox banjo landscape.
4:30 PM–5:15 PM - Performing the Banjo Before Minstrelsy - Kristina Gaddy - This presentation examines white performers and their use of the banjo as a prop to evoke Blackness before the emergence of Blackface Minstrelsy in the 1830s, and the ways in which transcribed music and song sought to emulate Black banjo playing in the Caribbean and North America. I will talk about the song "Sabinah," performed by white Creole Samuel Augustus Matthews in many places in the Caribbean in the late 18th and early 19th century; Charles Dibdin's "The Bonja Song" performed in London in the late 18th century; and Graupner's "The African Dance," published between 1805 and 1810 in Boston. I will explore how these songs attempted to emulate Black music making, while in reality they were setting up musical and performance stereotypes that would become integral to the performance in Blackface Minstrelsy.
5:15 PM–7:00 PM - DINNER (on your own)/ DISPLAY TIME*
7:00 PM–7:30 PM - Future Springs From the Past - Amina Thiam - This research connects the rich cultural traditions of medieval Senegambia to the cultures developed within black communities during the mid-1700s in the Maryland province. The valiant efforts of enslaved banjoists and artisans were direct attacks to white capitalist authority in the Mid-Atlantic British colonies. Thiam argues that early banjo players flouted the laws of white authority and displayed musical performance, showcasing their unique, emerging Afro-American identities rooted in their direct retention and reinvention of their sacred skill and affinity for strings that came from home. By examining Black patterns of migration in multiple directions, the brutal reality and deadly abuses of enslavement in Maryland, and reformulated African musical traditions in the colonies, researchers can uncover Black resistance efforts across the Atlantic and into the present day.
7:30 PM - 8:45 PM Screening of "Boil That Cabbage Down" Film and Filmmaker Q&A - Filmmaker Candace Williamson will be in conversation with Alexis Ojeda-Brown, a museum professional and organizer of the Maryland and DC Black Banjo Reclamation Project meetups.
8:45 PM - SOCIAL*
Saturday, November 7, 2025
10:00 AM–10:45 AM - Framus Banjo Made for Derroll Adams - Gérard DE SMAELE - On the European continent, at the dawn of the folk revival, Derroll Adams (Portland, Oregon, 1925 – Antwerp, Belgium, 2000) became an influential singer, story teller and banjo player who’s European career began in England, in a close collaboration with singer-guitarist Jack Elliott. In 2019, I’ve given to the Brussel’s Musical Instrument Museum a banjo representing the first version of the instrument made for him by FRAMUS in 1973. In November 2025, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the artist, that banjo and the personal instrument used by Derroll Adams were on display at the MiM, Brussels.
10:45 AM–11:30 AM - Defining 'Black Banjo': Toward Culturally Responsive Pedagogy - Joseph Z. Johnson - This presentation is based on Johnson's research and public work as a Black banjo fellowship recipient, teaching banjo classes that center Black experiences with Oakland Public Conservatory of Music, and teaching banjo history to the second cohort of fellows. It introduces readers to the Black Banjo and Fiddle Fellowship in Oakland, California. Further, given the historical and interracial complexity of the banjo’s use during the long 20th century, the essay outlines tensions that rise with the concept of “Black banjo” classes in the 21st century. It combines authetnography, oral history, and participant observation to broaden the scope of culturally responsive banjo education, working against previous frameworks of American traditional music education. Ultimately, the essay names “Black banjo” as a contemporary political enterprise, rather than a purely historical phenomena.
11:30AM - 12:15 PM - The Banjo and the Furnace: Mount Clare and the Dawn of American Music - Brad Rogers - Baltimore’s Mount Clare mansion is a historic colonial house that once oversaw a vast industrial plantation powered by enslaved labor. There are now tantalizing clues about the cultural and religious lives of the enslaved people who lived there, suggesting a continuous banjo musical tradition that connects Mount Clare all the way to the famed Snowden Family Band. This further establishes Baltimore as a crucial city in the history of the banjo.
12:15 PM–2:30 PM - LUNCH (on your own)/ DISPLAY TIME*
2:30 PM–3:15 PM - Banjos & Brahmins: The Banjo in Boston High Society - Roger Michel - This presentation explores the banjo's extraordinary Boston history. Through the presentation of instruments, artworks, photographs and early sound recordings, Michel takes a close look at the high quality instruments produced in Boston from makers like Fairbanks, Cole, Vega and Thompson & Odell, and examines both the extent to which these beautiful banjos became an important part of the life of Boston's high society women and the cultural forces that drove this surprising phenomenon.
3:15 PM–4:00 PM - Brown & Boucher's Banjo Building - Pete Ross and Jim Bollman - This presentation explores the characteristics of Levi Brown and William Boucher's banjos, both produced in Baltimore in the 1840s-1850s. Pete's standing theory about Levi Brown was that he took his inspiration from William Boucher's “rabbit ear” period. Pete would explain his thoughts, supported by dates, images and "The Pastoral Visit," which most people besides Pete and Jim still think is a Boucher although we think is a Brown. Pete ends his portion with the idea that “there must’ve been at least one Brown banjo that was a closer copy and included the Boucher rabbit ear peghead.” Pete will then hand it off to Jim, for a big reveal.
4:00 PM–4:45 PM - Sumter Rag: The Banjo Music of China Poplin, Edna Poplin, and Clint Barwick - Scott Stegall - This presentation considers the vibrant two-finger banjo styles of siblings Hunter "China" Poplin and Edna Poplin Shivers, alongside Clint Barwick, an inheritor and proponent of their music. Based on historical research and fieldwork I conducted with Clint Barwick and Edna’s daughter, Laura LeGrand, the music of the Poplin Family and Clint Barwick offers proof that old-time banjo styles flourished in the Sandhills and Midlands of South Carolina, refuting the myth that old time music existed in isolation in Appalachia. Ultimately, the breadth and depth of their music reframes old-time banjo playing not as an internally homogeneous tradition, but as a mosaic of individual expressions and sensibilities—personified by the trio's interest in a wide variety of repertoire choices and banjo playing techniques.
5:00 PM–7:30 - DINNER (on your own)
**5:00 PM–7:30 PM - Big Howdy Bluegrass Showcase @ Hank Dietle's Tavern - This auxiliary event is a chance for visitors to the DC area to experience an intimate bluegrass show at one of Montgomery Country's last remaining roadhouses. Big Howdy is one of DC's premier bluegrass bands, with Dede Wyland on guitar and vocals, Randy Barrett on vocals and banjo, Ira Gitlin on bass and Tom McLaughlin on mandolin. Tickets are limited and it will sell out, so if you are interested in attending, buy your tickets now! Hank Dietle's is an 18-minute drive from the Gaithersburg Marriott.**
7:30 PM–SOCIAL*
Sunday, November 8, 2025
10:00 AM–11:00 AM - Clean Up
11:00 AM–1:00 PM - Brunch & Jam
*Throughout the event, participants can display, buy, trade, and sell banjos and banjo ephemera, or just hang out and look at and play all the banjos.
