Nora at the Recovery Lounge

Nora Brown started learning ukulele at age six from the late Shlomo

Pestcoe. With a focus on old-time music, he laid a foundation of love of

music and the community it creates, and he instilled in her the lesson

that music is meant to be shared. Now 13 years old, Brown plays banjo

and accordion. She plays and sings with many of her old-time mentors

including fiddler Stephanie Coleman, under the band name Little

Leatherwood, and harmonica player Trip Henderson, under the band name

Tin+Bone.

Nora is mentored by many of her favorite old-time musicians including

Alice Gerrard, John Cohen, Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Sammy Lind, Mark Simos,

KC Groves, Courtney Hartman, Mac Traynham, John Haywood and Brett

Ratliff. In the last two years, she's won the blue ribbon in the youth

banjo competition at the Clifftop Appalachian String Band Music Festival

in West Virginia. In 2018 she also placed third in the adult banjo

competition at Clifftop. In 2017 she landed second place in the banjo

competition (all ages) at the Oldtone Roots Music Festival in Hillsdale,

New York. More recently, Brown traveled to eastern Kentucky to visit

with 90-year-old master banjo player and former coal miner Lee Sexton

and master banjo player and historian George Gibson.

Brown has played on the Floyd Radio Show in Floyd, Virginia, the

Washington Square Park Folk Festival, Brooklyn Folk Festival, Brooklyn

Americana Festival, Oldtone Roots Music Festival, both Summer and Winter

Hoots at the Ashokan Center and NYC Trad Fest. She has had multiple

month-long residencies at famed Barbès in Brooklyn, New York.

https://www.ted.com/talks/nora_brown_east_virginia_john_brown_s_dream?language=en