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Women's Lifestyle Magazine

The King and Queen of Banjo Perform at St. Cecilia Music Center Feb. 23

Feb 09, 2018 01:32PM ● By Elyse

St. Cecilia Music Center brings husband and wife duo Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn to the Royce Auditorium on Friday, Feb. 23  as a part of the Acoustic Cafe Series. This will be the duo’s first appearance together in Grand Rapids. Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn have been called “the king and queen of the banjo.” On stage, Fleck and Washburn will perform pieces from their 2016 Grammy-winning self-titled debut album, as well as their new record, Echo in the Valley.

Béla Fleck is a fifteen-time Grammy Award winner who has taken the instrument across multiple genres. Abigail Washburn is a singer-songwriter and clawhammer banjo player who re-radicalized the style by combining it with culture and sounds from the Far East. Echo in the Valley is the follow up to Fleck and Washburn’s acclaimed, self-titled debut that earned the 2016 Grammy for Best Folk Album.

“This time around, the mission was to take our double banjo combination of three finger and clawhammer styles to the next level and find things to do together that we had not done before,” says Fleck.  “We’re expressing different emotions through past techniques and going to deeper places.”

Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn tickets are $45 and $50 and can be purchased by calling St. Cecilia Music Center at 616-459-2224 or visiting the box office at 24 Ransom Ave. NE. Tickets can also be purchased online at scmc-online.org.  A post-concert party with a cash bar will be offered to all ticket-holders