Casey Christopher Driessen (born December 6, 1978, in Owatonna, Minnesota, United States) is an American bluegrass fiddler and singer. He plays acoustic and electric five-string violins. THe five-string violin has an additional low C string not found on the standard violin.
He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where he studied with Matt Glaser, and an alumnus of Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Ill.
He has performed with Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Steve Earle, Tim O'Brien, Darrell Scott, Jim Lauderdale, Lee Ann Womack, Mark Schatz, John Doyle, and Chris Thile. He has recorded with Darol Anger, John Mayer, Jerry Douglas, Jamey Haddad, and Blue Merle. He has also recorded on the soundtrack for the Johnny Cash film Walk the Line . He has toured with The Duhks, replacing Tania Elizabeth.
In November 2006 Driessen toured China and Tibet with the Sparrow Quartet (which also includes Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn, and cellist Ben Sollee). He also has his own band, the Colorfools, which includes Matt Mangano on bass and Tom "Tommy G" Giampietro on drums.
His first solo recording, 3D, was released in May 2006 on Sugar Hill Records. [1] In 2007, the track Jerusalem Ridge received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Instrumental Performance. With fiddler Darol Anger and Rushad Eggleston, he has released an instructional DVD entitled Chops & Grooves: Rhythmic Explorations for Bowed Instruments.
He contributed to Crooked Still's CD Shaken By A Low Sound (2006), and Taarka's The Martian Picture Soundtrack. Most recently, he released his second solo recording, "Oog" (2009) on Red Shoes Records. [2]
He has attended the Mark O'Connor fiddle camp as a teacher.
He lives in Valencia, Spain, where he is the director of the Contemporary Performance (Production Concentration) master's degree program at Berklee's campus in Valencia.
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, playing music from bluegrass, jazz, classical, rock and various world music genres. He is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck has won 15 Grammy Awards and been nominated 33 times.
Edgar Meyer is an American bassist and composer. His styles include classical, bluegrass, newgrass, and jazz. He has won five Grammy Awards and been nominated seven times.
Mark O'Connor is an American fiddle player and composer whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz and classical. A three-time Grammy Award winner, he has won six Country Music Association Musician Of The Year awards and, was a member of three influential musical ensembles; the David Grisman Quintet, The Dregs, and Strength in Numbers.
Charles Samuel Bush is an American mandolinist who is considered an originator of progressive bluegrass music. In 2020, he was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame as a member of New Grass Revival. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame a second time in 2023 as a solo artist.
Rushad Robert Eggleston is an American cellist, composer, jazz vocalist, & performer. Eggleston's music can be eccentric, with many references to fantasy and goblins. Eggleston is known for inventing words, and for his imaginative world called The Land of Sneth.
Mike Marshall is a bluegrass mandolinist who has collaborated with David Grisman and Darol Anger.
Darol Robert Anger is an American violinist and founding member of The David Grisman Quintet.
Abigail Washburn is an American clawhammer banjo player and singer. She performs and records as a soloist, as well as with the old-time bands Uncle Earl and Sparrow Quartet, experimental group The Wu Force, and as a duo with her husband Béla Fleck.
Bruce C. Molsky is an American fiddler, banjo player, guitarist, and singer. He primarily performs old-time music of the Appalachian region.
April Verch is a Canadian fiddler, singer, and step dancer raised in the community of Rankin, Ontario, located approximately 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southwest from Pembroke, Ontario. The youngest daughter of Ralph and Muriel Verch, April began step dancing at age three with her first step dance teachers, Buster and Pauline Brown, and began learning fiddle at age six from Pembroke fiddler Rob Dagenais, shortly after receiving her first violin as a birthday present. Throughout her childhood, April played both old time fiddle and classical violin, having competed and having won awards at fiddle contests inside and outside Ontario, as well as regularly performing with the Deep River Symphony Orchestra over that period. She also competed and won numerous awards for her step dancing in that time frame as well.
Matt Glaser is an American jazz and bluegrass violinist. He served as the chair of the string department at the Berklee College of Music for more than twenty-five years. He is now the founder and artistic director of Berklee's American Roots Music Program.
The Sparrow Quartet is an American acoustic music group that formed in 2005. Its members include Abigail Washburn, Béla Fleck (banjo), Casey Driessen (violin), and Ben Sollee (cello). The group is known for its mixture of old-time music with Chinese lyrics and melodies, owing to Washburn's long-standing interest in Chinese culture.
Taarka is a Lyons, Colorado-based musical group originally formed in Portland, Oregon in 2001 by the husband/wife team of David Tiller (mandolin) and Enion Pelta-Tiller (violin). The group originally included Jarrod Kaplan on percussion and James Whiton on stand-up bass. Since their departure Taarka has primarily consisted of a rotating membership. Recent Taarka contributors often include Dale Largent on percussion, Daniel Plane on cello, and Troy Robey on bass.
Hanneke Jewel Cassel is an American folk violinist. She was raised in Oregon and graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at Berklee College of Music in 2000. Hanneke is the 1997 United States National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and she has performed and taught across the United States, Scotland, Sweden, China, New Zealand, France, England, and Australia.
Mark L. Schatz is an American bassist, banjoist, mandolinist, guitarist, clogger, and hambone performer who has recorded on albums for and toured with artists including Bela Fleck, Nickel Creek, Jerry Douglas, Maura O'Connell, Tony Rice, John Hartford, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Tim O'Brien.
This is the discography of the Grammy-winning banjoist Béla Fleck which consists of 24 studio albums, 12 collaboration albums, one live albums, three music videos, 14 singles, and 75 other appearances.
DGQ-20 is a 1996 compilation album by American musician David Grisman, recorded with his group David Grisman Quintet. Spanning the period from 1976 to 1996, this triple-CD set offers 39 songs, 18 of which were not released by Grisman before. Musicians include Tony Rice, Béla Fleck, Sam Bush, Mark O'Connor, Stephane Grappelli and others.
The Summit format is used in jazz to bring together performers on a particular musical instrument. Though these recordings often feature other musicians, the main instrument is focused upon in a celebratory way.
The Turtle Island Quartet is a string quartet that plays hybrids of jazz, classical, and rock music. The group was formed in 1985 by David Balakrishnan, Darol Anger, and Mark Summer in San Francisco. They released their first album on Windham Hill Records in 1988 with Irene Sazer.
Jeremy David Kittel is an American musician and composer. His primary instruments are the violin / fiddle and viola and his styles include Celtic, Jazz, Classical, Bluegrass, Folk music, and more.