The Oregon Bluegrass Association is pleased to announce the 2024 Steve Waller Grant recipients, Lillian Sawyer and Henry Strid. There were no applicants for the Candey Songwriting Grant this year.
Lillian Sawyer is a fiddler, multi-instrumentalist, educator, and composer from Portland, Oregon. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Lillian has performed with renowned acoustic musicians such as Darol Anger, Joe K. Walsh, Grant Gordy, Ben Krakauer and more in addition to touring both nationally and internationally with award-winning bands such as Never Come Down and Fog Holler. Since moving from Boston to Portland in 2015, Lillian has been an avid and continuing contributor to the Oregon bluegrass community as an educator, side person, and bandleader.
She intends to use the Waller Grant funds to help fund the recording of a short EP of her original music. The personnel lineup for said EP will include Joe Suskind, Josiah Payne, and Noa and will be recorded at Dead Aunt Thelma’s.”
Henry Strid is a 14 year old banjo player from Eugene, Oregon. He has been living with his family in Oregon for the past four years after moving from the greater Boise area in Idaho. Henry has been playing the banjo for seven years and has performed with a number of bands at various festivals and events. Aside from guest appearances with Mile Twelve and the Kody Norris Show, Henry played with Bluebirds on a Wire at the Parkfield Festival last spring and with Wild Blue Yonder at the South State 48 festival in Carlsbad, California. Henry has been actively involved with the Kids on Bluegrass program through the IBMA for the past four years, and last year was selected to perform in the all-star band to to open on the main stage in Raleigh, North Carolina. Henry also performed as a guest with the Kian Dye band and with his own band as part of the OBA showcase series at Wintergrass. Most recently, Henry played a concert with fiddler Luke Bulla at Tsunami Books in Eugene, and is currently a member of the up and coming Wildwood Bluegrass Band, also from Eugene.
Henry intends to use a portion of the funds from the Waller Grant to cover his ongoing lessons with his current teacher Wes Corbett. The remaining funds will go towards his tuition at the American Banjo Camp in September, where he will be studying with renowned players Alan Munde, BB Bowness and Jeff Scroggins.
Thank you to everyone who has donated to our two grant programs. Learn more about our grant programs here. You can donate to the grant programs here.
