Next generation of bluegrass musicians trained at this Kentucky arts center

A local arts space celebrating its centennial has launched a new program centered around propping up the next generation of bluegrass musicians.

Bluegrass University, the new initiative from Winchester’s Leeds Center For The Arts, started with placement auditions Aug. 4 and will have its first performance Oct. 14 at Winchester’s Legacy Grove Park.

Teaching the sessions are music educator (and Leeds board member) Zac Combs and Jayd Raines, the latter a longtime bluegrass musician who’s played with everyone from Marty Raybon (of Shenandoah), Don Rigsby, Larry Cordle and Ralph Stanley II.

According to Raines, the idea for Bluegrass University came from a desire to expand on his longtime side hustle of offering music lessons at the same time his daughter started getting involved in the Leeds Center’s various programs.

“Any opportunity to be at the theatre engaging in something, she took it,” Raines says. “The more time we spent there, the more I started to take notice of their rock music program — Rock University — and began thinking of what something similar centered around bluegrass music would look like.”

How to apply for Bluegrass University

Those visions led to conversations over the winter with Combs and Leeds Center Executive Director Tracey Miller where the trio finalized the details of the program. The curriculum is geared toward each individual student and teaches them everything from learning to play cohesively with a band to being more confident on whatever instrument they’re playing, harmonizing in a bluegrass setting and more. Geared toward students ages 11-18, Raines says that the instruction is far more advanced than a basic 101 course.

“It’s not really set up as a way for somebody to come in and say ‘I want to learn to play the banjo,’ although I would certainly encourage anyone who wants to learn to play an instrument to do that,” Raines says. “The beauty of bluegrass is it’s not a complicated style of music to play. Most of the songs are only comprised of two to four chords, the biggest part is just developing the confidence to do it in front of an audience.”

Weekly classes with four students started Aug. 4 with sessions being split into Fall and Spring semesters, with the former lasting into early November and culminating in a small showcase. Classes will then resume in January with a target of seven to eight participants.

Interested middle and high school students can apply online at leedscenter.org/bluegrass-university.

While the sample size will be small to start, Raines stressed both the importance of keeping the program scalable and using it as a tool to carry on and preserve the tradition of bluegrass music for generations to come.

“I would rather start it out small and manageable and grow it over time than take on more than we can handle,” Raines said.

“(Bluegrass music is) ingrained in our culture. If you’re a Kentuckian, this is your music,” Raines says. “The best bluegrass musicians in the world come from here, which is something that any generation should be proud of. Bluegrass University is our way of contributing to help Kentucky keep cranking out these awesome musicians.”

Bluegrass University tied in with bluegrass music’s popularity

The rolling out of Bluegrass University couldn’t be more well-timed either, with the niche genre of music having arguably its biggest moment ever, with artists like Billy Strings selling out arenas (like his two concerts at Rupp Arena in June) to institutions like the Grammy Hall of Fame inducting Lexington native J.D. Crowe & The New South’s transformational self-titled album in May.

It’s a phenomenon that’s captivated Raines, seeing the niche genre of mountain music derived nearly a century ago from Kentucky native Bill Monroe & The Blue Grass Boys go from being played on porches nestled on hills and in hollers locally to a subset of music adored not just coast to coast, but even globally. “Even though you can go to Japan and other places around the world and hear bluegrass, it still is uniquely Kentucky’s music,” Raines said.

“Bluegrass has undergone a real resurgence ever since the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou? “ came out to the point where nowadays you see artists like Billy Strings packing arenas playing the music,” Raines says. “It’s important to tap into that buzz with youngsters in the community who may not be bluegrass musicians right now, but have an interest in it and the desire to learn more — and this program provides an avenue for them to do that.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2025 at 11:30 AM.