Dr. Rik Lovelady

Dr. Rik Lovelady is currently one of the talented performers in the four-string banjo world, appearing at major banjo shows across the country, and frequently concertizing in public and private locations in the Midwest. He is a recent member of the Board of Directors of The Fretted Instrument Guild of America, which promotes the plucked string music heritage, and he has written articles on the banjo for FIGA magazine. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the National Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame Museum.

As a young boy, Edgar "Rik" Lovelady fell in love with the banjo while traveling in musical tours with his parents; he taught himself to play, first, the tenor, and in 1985, the plectrum banjo. He continued to play the banjo occasionally while undertaking an extended program of graduate education in English and Greek, which culminated in receiving his Ph.D. from Purdue University. He has served as the Chair of the Grace College English department, Winona Lake, Indiana, for 36 years.

Lovelady has studied literature at Cambridge University, England, has studied and taught in Greece, and has been a featured soloist on the banjo and guitar with the 30-piece big band "Dimensions in Brass," on their recordings and in performances across America, Germany, and France. In 1972 Lovelady brought renowned guitar virtuoso Christopher Parkening to Grace College for a master class, where he also participated as performer. In addition to academic duties, he teaches classical and jazz guitar for Grace College, also performing classical selections on the banjo for music faculty recitals. With the Swampwater Stompers Dixieland Jazz Band, he performed for former President Bush in 1999.

Having devoted himself to a more concentrated involvement with the banjo since 1995, Rik has released two CD/cassette albums, "New Horizons," and "Banjo-r-r-ific!" He also appears on the recent CD "Rik Lovelady and the Swampwater Stompers Dixieland Jazz Band." Rik is currently engaged in the archiving project for the museum, furnishing cleanly edited CD's of hundreds of older recordings in various formats to provide a central repository of banjo performances for future generations.