Dan Levenson

Dan Levenson is an Appalachian native who has grown up with the music of that region. Today he is considered a respected master teacher and performer of both the Clawhammer banjo & Appalachian style fiddle. Banjo Newsletter’s R.D. Lunceford describes Dan “as an interpreter, rather than a music re-creator”. Fiddler Magazine’s Bob Buckingham described him as “an accomplished fiddler and ...one of the best clawhammer banjo players in the country.” Ken Perlman has called him “The Johnny Appleseed of the Banjo”.

Dan performs and teaches regularly throughout the world including in England, Ireland, Israel and Brazil. He has taught at many music schools and camps including in the John C. Campbell Folk School, Mars Hill, Maryland Banjo Academy, The Ozark Folk Center at Mountain View, AR, Banjo Camp North, The Rolland Fiddle Camp and Dan’s own Clawcamp and Old-Time Music instructional weekends held at various locations throughout the country.

Dan has won awards on both instruments including a 2017 Master Artist Award from Arizona's Southwest Folklife Alliance, first place at the 2005 Ohio Clawhammer Banjo Championship and Grand Champion at the 2010 Ajo, AZ Fiddle Contest.

Dan has 8 recordings of his own and is one of the most prolific authors of instructional and tune books for clawhammer banjo and fiddle with 14 Mel Bay publications to his name including Clawhammer Banjo From Scratch; Old Time Fiddle From Scratch and the Clawhammer Banjo Masters series with co-author Bob Carlin (Kyle Creed, Wade Ward and Fred Cockerham & Tommy Jarrell volumes available). He is also a writer and editor for Banjo Newsletter’s “Old Time Way”.