Alumna Allison de Groot Awarded 2024 Steve Martin Banjo Prize

Alumna Allison de Groot Awarded 2024 Steve Martin Banjo Prize De Groot, a former student of the American Roots Music Program, was recognized for her unique sound and skill with the clawhammer banjo.

By

Daniel Pesquera

December 20, 2024

Allison de Groot BM '16

Image by Phil Cook

Allison de Groot BM '16 has been named a winner of the 2024 Steve Martin Banjo Prize, one of the highest honors awarded to bluegrass and old-time artists. De Groot and Tray Wellington were announced as the recipients of the $25,000 first-place prize on December 17 and received a personal message from Steve Martin congratulating them on the achievement.

A Winnipeg native and a veteran of the bluegrass and old-time scene, de Groot is widely recognized as one of the top clawhammer banjo players in Americana, roots, and North American traditional music. She frequently collaborates with distinguished artists in these genres, including fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves, with whom she recently received two Canadian Folk Music Awards and a Juno nomination. In 2023, the Americana Music Association nominated her for Instrumentalist of the Year.

While touring with her band Oh My Darling, de Groot entered Berklee in 2012 on the Slaight Family Scholarship, awarded annually to an exceptional Canadian artist. As the first clawhammer banjo principal in Berklee's American Roots Music Program, she studied under Bruce Molsky and was a founding member of his band, Molsky's Mountain Drifters.

What a thrill to see Allison receive the recognition she truly deserves, not just with this Steve Martin Prize but out there in the touring world. All of us in the American roots program are thrilled for her, said Molsky. In our time together, she proved through her very unique lens what the clawhammer banjo-an historically limited instrument-can do, and how it can fit into unexpected musical spaces. Allison became a member of my trio, Molsky's Mountain Drifters, and for six years lifted our band's music up in so many ways.

Founded in 2010, the Steve Martin Banjo Prize has awarded more than $500,000 in unrestricted prize funds to banjo players across the genre and style spectrum. Among the past winners is Victor Furtado BM '23, who won in 2019 while still a student at Berklee.

Watch a video featuring Allison de Groot from her first semester at Berklee:

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