John Spangler

Teacher

Private Lesson Offerings

Bluegrass Banjo - All Levels
Old Time Banjo - Beginner - Intermediate

John's Biography

A native of Bristol, TN, John grew up in Pennsylvania where he started classical piano lessons at age 7. He remembers singing harmonies with his sisters in the car on trips to Virginia to visit his grandparents, and sang in choirs throughout high school and college. He took up the banjo at age 13, because, as he told his parents, he wanted to learn an instrument he could play around a campfire. The banjo quickly became his passion as he focused on the 3-finger picking of Earl

Scruggs and melodic styles of Bobby Thompson and Bill Keith. While traditional bluegrass has always been a passion, he enjoys taking the banjo into genres where it is less well known. He also played electric bass in a rock band during high school, and took Suzuki violin as one of his college music courses.

Over the years he has played banjo with numerous Bluegrass/Americana bands, most recently in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and previously while living in Switzerland, where he performed

across Europe and taught banjo at the ETM (now eMa, Ecole des Musiques Actuelles) school of contemporary music in Geneva. He has been in opening acts for Tim O’Brien, Frank Wakefield, the Jerry Douglas Band, Béla Fleck, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Carolina Chocolate Drops among others, and has played venues such as the Kimmel Center, Sellersville Theater, World Café Live, the Baggot Inn, Paramount and Jefferson theaters in Charlottesville, the Southern, Foundry, and festivals such as the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Bristol Rhythm & Roots, Floydfest, Red Wing, and Festy. Since moving to VA in 2009, John has been onstage with such bands as Bourbon Barrel Congress, Gallatin Canyon, HoboJac, and Corner Grocery..