Blue Ridge Music Center’s 2022 Visitor Center Hours

The Blue Ridge Music Center’s Visitor Center, which houses the Roots of American Music Museum Exhibit and a gift shop, is closed for the season. We typically open in early May and close the last weekend of October. Please visit us in the spring when we reopen for the 2023 season.

We have two online series we produced that include videos of interviews, music, and conferences exploring topics in American roots-based music. Check out A Place in the Band and Deep Roots, Many Voices described below.

In the meantime, we have programs offsite and online to keep the music going year-round.

The Music Center hiking trails are available year-round.

SUMMER 2022 CONCERT SERIES

We had a great concert season with 12 fantastic Saturday evening concerts in our outdoor amphitheater. We’ll be back next year with 14 Saturday evening concerts, Memorial Day through Labor Day (to be announced in early March), Sunday afternoon Milepost Music concerts at various locations along the Parkway, June through September, and Midday Mountain Music daily in the covered breezeway through October.

In the meantime, check out our Sounds of the Mountains series in January held in partnership with the Yadkin Arts Council and held in Yadkinville, North Carolina.

You can also view our “A Place in the Band” and “Deep Roots, Many Voices” videos described below.

DEEP ROOTS, MANY VOICES

Deep Roots, Many Voices explores diversity and inclusion in roots-based music.

he five-part virtual discussion series explores issues related to diversity and inclusion in American roots-based music. The first two episodes of the Deep Roots, Many Voices video series features a conversation with heralded musicians Dom Flemons and Rissi Palmer. Additional discussions were with Pura Fé and Charly Lowry, Sam Gleaves and Joe Troop, Tray Wellington and Earl White, and Joseph Kwon and AJ Lee.

These discussions, along with an online symposium held on the spring of 2022, are all online and can be accessed through our Deep Roots, Many Voices page.

A PLACE IN THE BAND: WOMEN IN BLUEGRASS AND AMERICAN ROOTS MUSIC

A Place in the Band celebrates women involved in bluegrass and American roots-based music.

The series includes ten interviews with female musicians, festival producers, artists’ representatives, and sound engineering discussing their careers and issues they’ve faced as women in the industry. Join Laurelyn Dossett as she interviews Rhiannon Giddens, Alice Gerrard, Laurie Lewis, Missy Raines, Ruth Ungar, Amythyst Kiah, Kristin Scott-Benson, Traci Thomas, Amy Grossmann, and Haley Miller-Coots.

These discussions, along with an online conference held in the spring of 2021 that included a series of mini-concerts, are all online.

MILEPOST MUSIC

We tried out something new this year – free Milepost Music concerts on rotating Sunday afternoons at several iconic destinations along the Blue Ridge Parkway, from June through September. We’ll be tweaking it a bit, but these popular music presentations will be back next year. In the mean time, check out the Milepost Music page for some photos from the 2022 season.

Milepost Music is a collaboration between the Blue Ridge Music Center, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, and National Park Service.