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Pikelny, Noam

WR

NOAM PIKELNY

  • From Champaign, Illinois.
  • A banjo player who was inspired as a teen by Bela Fleck.
  • 2002, played in a college jam band called Waffle Hoss, also worked with Czech guitarist Slavek Hanslik,
  • 2003, joined Leftover Salmon.
  • 2004, joined the John Cowan Band.
  • 2004, released first solo project In the Maze (Compass).
  • 2006, joined The Punch Brothers.
  • 2010, won the first annual Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass ($50,000). This was not a competition but a surprise award given by Martin and selected by a panel of judges including Earl Scruggs, Pete Wernick, Tony Trischka, Anne Stringfield, Alison Brown, Neil V. Rosenberg, Béla Fleck and Martin himself.
  • 2011, released Beat The Devil and Carry A Rail album (Compass).
  • 2013, released Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe album (Compass) featuring Pikelny’s arrangements for banjo of fiddle tunes recorded on the landmark album Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe.
  • 2013, delivered keynote address at the IBMA World of Bluegrass in Raleigh, NC.
  • 2014, won IBMA Awards for Banjo Player of the Year and Instrumental Album of the Year for Noam Pikelny Plays Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe).
  • 2016, toured as a solo artist (during time off with the Punch Brothers).
  • 2017, won his second IBMA Award for Banjo Player of the Year (also won in 2014).