Editor’s note: Register for the Blue Ridge Music Center’s FREE virtual A Place in the Band conference held Friday, February 26, 2021 here.
BGS has been proud to partner with the Blue Ridge Music Center on their online series, A Place in the Band: Women in Bluegrass & American Roots Music.Ā The 10-part series explores the triumphs and struggles of prominent women with careers in the music industry.
Musicians Kristin Scott Benson and Ruth Ungar as well as audio engineer Haley Miller Coots are featured in this weekās final episodes, which are available with the full series on the Blue Ridge Music Centerās YouTube channel, at their website,Ā BlueRidgeMusicCenter.org,Ā and here onĀ BGS. All three of these women come from families with deep roots and historical connections to traditional and folk music.
In this edition of A Place in the Band meet Haley Miller Coots, a professional audio engineer who works for SE Systems, a sound and event production company based in North Carolina. SE Systems provides sound, staging, lighting and production services for major festivals, concert series, venues, and touring performers and bands. Some of their more well known clients include MerleFest, IBMA’s World of Bluegrass, and The Tangier Center in Greensboro, NC. Miller Coots has toured as audio engineer for Alison Krauss and Union Station, run sound at both MerleFest and IBMA among other festivals, and worked with both the Winston-Salem and North Carolina Symphonies on the Pop Series concerts, particularly the bluegrass and Americana oriented collaborations.
“We are grateful to all the women musicians and industry professionals who agreed to take part in the Women in Bluegrass & American Music interview series,” Blue Ridge Music Center director Richard Emmett says via email. “We hope you’ll take some time to give a look and listen to some of these women and their stories… We’re sure you’ll be entertained and we hope you’ll take away some new insights and perspectives.”
The Blue Ridge Music Center would like to thank their sponsors, supporters, and media partners: The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Parks Foundation, and BGS.
Explore more fromĀ A Place in the Band,Ā sign up for the conference,Ā and learn more about the Blue Ridge Music CenterĀ here.
Video credit: JoeĀ Dejarnette,Ā Studio 808A
Graphic credit: Jacob LeBlanc, Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation
