Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award is an annual cash award, presented to the developing academic scholar who presents the best paper accepted by a juried academic conference on an aspect of bluegrass music. The recipient will receive a $500 honorarium plus admission to the next IBMA Business Conference and Awards Show. Read about the 2021 recipient here. 

“Developing academic scholars” eligible for this award are defined as graduate students in MA or PhD programs and recent PhDs (within five years of degree completion). The committee tasked with overseeing the  Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholarship Award process is headed by Travis Stimeling (West Virginia University) and Tim Stafford (East Tennessee State University/Blue Highway).

The “IBMA Academic Prize” (as it was then known) was presented in 2011 to Benjamin Krakauer, who teaches now on the faculty of Warren Wilson College. The IBMA Foundation took responsibility for the award in 2018, re-naming it in honor of renowned bluegrass music historian, author and Bluegrass Hall of Fame member Neil Rosenberg. Recipients of the Rosenberg Bluegrass Scholar Award are pictured below.   

Our gratitude is extended to Laurie Greenberg who sponsored the award in 2022, to the John Hartford Family for sponsoring in 2021, and to Mary Tyler Doub, who sponsored the Rosenberg Award in 2019.

For more information, please email the IBMA Foundation through the form below, or contact Dr. Stimeling directly at travis.stimeling@mail.wvu.edu. Entries may be emailed to Dr. Stimeling or mailed to him at 142 Ridgeley Road, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA. The annual deadline to apply is June 30.