String Band Summit

2026 String Band Summit

April 10 - 12, 2026

Call For Participation   

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 East Tennessee State University on the weekend of April 10-12, 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. Proposals from graduate and undergraduate students are encouraged. The committee will select presenters anonymously.     
  
Each proposal should include a 100-word bio and 250-word abstract; scholarly and teaching proposals should indicate a central argument or theme,  relationships to other scholarly literature and/or pedagogical practice, and conclusions/outcomes. Performance proposals should include 2-3 YouTube links. Proposals are due by Nov. 3, 2025 submitted via this Google form: The committee plans to respond to all submissions by Nov. 21, 2025.   
     
The primary language of the Summit will be English; the committee is able to consider proposals that include other languages. Please indicate if language support is needed and we will provide it as we are able.  

Click one of the types of proposals below to apply:

Band / Artist Application

Proposals are due by Nov. 3, 2025, The committee plans to respond to all submissions by Nov. 21, 2025.

If you have an idea for an event that does not fit the above categories, (or have other questions)
contact Tashi Litch or Lee Bidgood.