The String Band Summit (SBS) gathers artists, teachers, scholars, and other music industry stakeholders engaged in string band music across the Americas to explore string band traditions, histories, practices, instruments, and pedagogy, seeking to foster collaboration and understanding. The 5th annual SBS will be hosted by the Institute for Appalachian Music and Culture in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University April 9-12, 2026. The gathering will not have a regional theme, but will focus on bringing together people who perform, teach, study, and present string band music around, over, and through boundaries of genre, vocation, and geography.  The organizers seek to support professional, intellectual, and artistic development, deepen connections between institutions of higher education where string band musics are taught and studied, and foster collaboration and understanding between researchers and string band artists, allowing participants to interact and collaborate with their peers who work in different places, traditions, and disciplines.

We invite participation from artists, performers, practitioners, luthiers, songwriters, and event promoters as well as from scholars and teachers of ethnomusicology, musicology, music education, music theory, dance, art history, history, cultural studies, political science, anthropology, sociology, area studies, media studies, folklore, performance studies, and other relevant disciplines. Participation by graduate and undergraduate students is encouraged.

The fifth annual String Band Summit takes place April 9-12 at various ETSU sites! Program, registration, and information here: https://www.etsu.edu/…/string-band-summit/sbs_2026.php

Students are free, but please make sure to register!