Congratulations to Fletcher Bright Memorial Grant for Young Musicians recipient Bayla Davis, 15, who used grants in 2022 and 23 to go to the Bela Fleck Banjo Camp in Brevard, North Carolina.
Davis was chosen to participate in the From the Top National Public Radio podcast (fromthetop.org) which “typically focuses on classical musicians,” Bayla said. “It’s special because I was only the second traditional artist to ever be chosen. Thanks again to the IBMA Foundation for your support.”
Bayla is a traditional vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from Leicester, North Carolina. At age six she started learning music at the Junior Appalachian Musicians program (JAM) in Black Mountain, NC. She and her siblings perform in a band called “Newfound Gap.” She has won first place at the Galax, Virginia, Old Fiddlers Convention in clawhammer banjo, and she has participated in the Mt. Airy Fiddlers Convention, the Appalachian State Fiddlers Convention, the South Carolina Fiddlers Convention, and more. In 2024 she recorded tracks for the Fine-Tuned album, a mentorship and collaboration-based project aimed at professional development for emerging artists playing traditional music in western North Carolina. She plans on attending Berklee College of Music, and she wants to teach and perform in the future.
RETURN to the May 2024 issue of The Cornerstone.
Here’s the entire podcast. Bayla’s part starts at 1 hour and 16 minutes: Stream Show 447 – Musicians from Rural America by From the Top | Listen online for free on SoundCloud
View Bayla’s part of the podcast on YouTube here:
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