NewsAnnouncing the 2026 Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Awards
The Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities has awarded six teams of artists Folklife Apprenticeships for 2024–2025.
NewsJazz and Civil Rights
The personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane cannot be divorced from the struggle for racial equality.
EventJohn Jackson Piedmont Blues Festival
Come join us for our sixth John Jackson Piedmont Blues Festival. This music and cultural heritage festival honors Woodville Virginia native John Jackson, recipient of the prestigious National Heritage Fellowship …
Event2026 Supernova Ska Festival
The 2026 Supernova International Ska Festival takes place September 12–13 at historic Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, bringing some of the biggest names in ska and reggae music to the …
EventMusic & Foodways Day at the Fiddle & Fork Festival
The inaugural Fiddle & Fork Festival is a weekend-long celebration of 250 years of Blue Ridge music and foodways. The Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities is presenting a luthier’s demonstration with 2026 apprenticeship …
NewsThe Harmonious Lives of Brian Grim and Debbie Grim Yates
Music runs deep in the Grim family. Fiddler Brian Grim and banjoist Debbie Grim Yates, founding members of the influential old-time band The Konnarock Critters, learned from family and local music legends before passing those traditions on to the next generation.
NewsTexas Gladden & the Art of Appalachian Ballads
In this event, recorded on February 4, 2026, Encyclopedia Virginia Managing Editor Patti Miller and folklorists Daniel Bachman and Aldona Dye discuss the career and legacy of famed Appalachian ballad …
NewsMid-Atlantic Arts Announces Two Virginia “Walking Together” Grantees
The US Regional Arts Organizations (USRAO) today announced the grant recipients of Walking Together: Investing in Folklife in Communities of Color. A total of $3.34 million has been awarded to 96 grantees. Fifty-six …
EventFloyd JAMs Fall Recital
Join us for an evening of live bluegrass music as our students share what they’ve been working on this semester.
NewsFiddlin’ with the Flow: Old Time Music from the Rivers and Streams of SW Virginia
American rivers often serve as major repositories for local music. There may be no better example than America’s oldest river, the New, that from its tiniest gurgle in the mountains of North Carolina to the loud, raging gorge it has dug in West Virginia, has transported home grown, Appalachian music throughout the South.
NewsOpera’s Changing World: “YAPs” & Victory Hall Opera
October 25th is World Opera Day, and to celebrate we caught up with recent grantee Victory Hall Opera (VHO) to discuss their documentary film project, “YAPs.” VHO, based in …
