Executive Director // PineCone, the Piedmont Council of Traditional Music // Raleigh
What are the founding principles behind PineCone?
Our programs highlight and celebrate the rich and diverse musical heritage of Raleigh and the greater Piedmont region by focusing on music traditions that have been passed down informally through generations within our various cultural communities. Our programs educate the public about the depth and breadth of “home-made” music in the region, and encourage people to engage with these art forms and embrace them as part of our shared cultural identity.
One of six resident companies at Raleigh’s Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, PineCone presents more than 200 music programs annually, including concerts, festivals, radio shows, jam sessions, youth events, workshops, documentary projects and more. We are the official local host organization for the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) and its World of Bluegrass conference in Raleigh, and the producers of the two-day Wide Open Bluegrass festival.
PineCone’s work over the past 33 years has helped establish Raleigh as the heart of North Carolina’s unique music-making legacy. In the four years that Raleigh has hosted IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, attendance has grown from 140,000 in 2013 to 217,000 in 2016. The four-year economic impact to the greater Raleigh community is estimated at $37.8 million with an additional $12 million in earned media value.
How does traditional music--and musical tradition—tell the North Carolina story?
Roots matter--and in Raleigh and the greater North Carolina Piedmont region, music tradition has been the soundtrack for daily life for centuries.
Traditional musicians are farmers, educators, potters, mechanics, lawyers, judges, architects, pharmacists, students, nurses, doctors, merchants and other ordinary people. Fiddlers compete at fiddlers’ conventions, string bands play for contra dances and at kiln openings, singers perform hymns and spirituals in churches, bluegrass musicians entertain at community festivals, mariachi bands perform for quinceaneras, blues musicians educate young audiences in school auditoriums.
PineCone honors this living musical heritage by curating music programs that provide meaningful encounters between traditional artists and the public, which helps to brand Raleigh as a home to unique and significant grassroots musical resources.
How can groups experience PineCone programs and events?
With abundant opportunities to treat their clients to a taste of the local music scene, meeting planners can check our comprehensive event calendar online at https://pinecone.org/calendar and coordinate an activity with one of our friendly staffers.