Nora Brown

At only eighteen years old, Nora Brown has already released three albums, toured internationally, played in The Newport Folk Festival, and has had two NPR tiny desk concerts. She was introduced to traditional music at six years old in Brooklyn, New York, and has studied fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and banjo, with banjo being her primary instrument. She grew up going to Appalachia for music festivals to be immersed in old time music where she studied under masters of their craft. 

Here is a link to one of her NPR tiny desk concerts: https://youtu.be/GxjyFQS2nIY?si=mhJtmCsCA1eC4KBW

This NPR concert was filmed during covid-19 when she was only fifteen years old. She speaks and sings with a maturity far beyond her age, connecting with the history and stories behind the music she plays. 

One aspect of Nora Brown that makes her such a successful musician is her ability to collaborate with others as well as an intense drive to learn new things. I actually witnessed this first-hand when I was younger at an old time Kentucky music camp in Appalachia that Nora was also at. She was always wanting to join in playing music with others and wanted to learn everything the instructors had to offer. She also learned extremely quickly and was very effective in her ability to collaborate with other musicians (and this is when she was around only eleven). In Rick Rubin’s book “The Creative Act” he discusses how all work is collaborative because art is in collaboration with what came before and what is to come after. Brown understood this and had a drive to collaborate and learn all the old-time music that had been passed down for generations so that she could take it and create her own art in collaboration with the old art.