Daily Schedule

All of our instructors have prior experience in well-known workshop settings, and are skilled, patient, and caring teachers. A typical day’s schedule will be as follows:

Daily Events

9am - 12pm Group Classroom Instruction

12pm - 1:30pm Lunch

1:30pm - 2:15pm Individual Instruction

2:15pm - 3pm Slow Jams

2:15pm - 3pm Staff Showcase of Styles

3pm - 4pm Masters Program

2023 Allegheny Echoes Music Masters

Sammy Shelor got an early start when his grandfather fashioned him a banjo from an old pressure cooker lid when Sam was only four years old. By age 10, he was performing in local bands and became a full time professional musician when he graduated from high school, joining The Heights Of Grass at age 19. Since becoming a member of Lonesome River Band in 1990, Sammy has been featured on dozens of successful recordings, both with LRB and as a guest player. Sammy has received a multitude of awards and recognitions during his impressive career including his induction into the 2009 Virginia Country Music Hall of Fame, 5-time recipient of the IBMA Banjo Player of the Year Award, 2011 winner of the 2nd Annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass, and 3-time winner of the SPBGMA Banjo Performer of the Year Award.

Amanda Smith was born in the small town of Davisville, West Virginia, and grew up singing in church choirs and participating in talent contests at local fairs. “I always sang, my mom and dad said, even before I can remember,” she says. She started playing guitar in high school to accompany herself, and soon discovered bluegrass music through female artists such as Rhonda Vincent and Alison Krauss.

Hunter Berry is known far and wide as an award winning, top rated fiddle player. He's never known a stranger; striking up a conversation with most anyone anywhere in the world! Hunter loves people, and they love him back. Though the fiddle is his mainstay, he can play anything. His mandolin style is unique; and he has that special touch on any instrument he plays, from the guitar to the autoharp. It was years after he joined The Rage, that they discovered his vocal virtuosity. Hunter can sing any part, just as he plays any instrument. This versatility in music, voice, and song, along with his spontaneous improv, make every show exciting and unique. He's one of a kind in talent and personality.

The Bing Brothers grew up in a Wayne County musical household and taught themselves to play their unique style of music that includes a rustic repertoire, aggressive tempos, and boundless energy. Honored with WV’s Vandalia Award in 2012, the Bings were exposed to traditional music early in life. The brothers also drew inspiration from Sherman, Burl and other members of the Hammons family in Pocahontas County. Since the mid-1970s when they began playing at taverns, honky-tonks and such festivals as the West Virginia State Folk Festival in Glenville, the Vandalia Gathering, the Galax [Virginia] Old Fiddlers Convention, and at the Appalachian South Folklife Festival Center, they have performed, competed, taught, and promoted their music to enthusiastic audiences across the globe, including Ireland, England and Australia.

Mud Hole Control - JR Loudermilk, from Greenbrier County, WV is well known for his work in old time and bluegrass music. He played with his dad Charlie and Junior Spencer in an earlier version of the band. He has worked with Richard Hefner and the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys as well as the Bing Brothers. He is joined by cousins Eric and Pudge Spencer. Eric is well known for his lead and tenor singing and solid guitar work. He has played with Robert Montgomery and Mountain Rhythm, Steel Creek, and Homegrown Bluegrass. Pudge Spencer lends his great baritone voice, which has been a feature of Mud Hole Control for years. Together with Allegheny Echoes alumni Stephen Casto on banjo and Ben Davis on fiddle, they make up the current iteration of this beloved band that has entertained in West Virginia and the South for decades.

Creative Writing Master

Pauletta Hansel is a poet, memoirist and teacher. Her books include Will There Also Be Singing? (Shadelandhouse Modern Press, 2024), poems of witness and protest; Heartbreak Tree (Madville Publications, 2022), which won the Poetry Society of Virginia’s 2023 North American Book Award; and Palindrome (Dos Madres Press, 2017) winner of Berea College’s Weatherford Award in Poetry. Her writing has been featured in Cincinnati Review, Oxford American, Rattle, Cutleaf, Appalachian Journal, Still: The Journal, Verse Daily and Poetry Daily, among others. Born and raised in southeastern Kentucky, Pauletta was Cincinnati’s first poet laureate, and the 2022 Writer in Residence for the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. She is a core member of the Urban Appalachian Community Coalition, and past managing editor of Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, the literary journal of the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative. She leads writing workshops and retreats virtually and in the Greater Cincinnati area and beyond.