Keith Baumann

A true multi-instrumentalist, Keith Baumann serves at MBC 2020 as part-time instructor of tenor banjo and mandolin. Keith has been a professional musician and teacher for more than 35 years. Originally from the East Coast, in the 1980s he moved to the Bay Area, where he worked alongside banjo virtuoso Alison Brown in Heartland, and played in the Lost Weekend Band with Western Swing Hall of Fame member Don Burnham. He moved to the Midwest in the 1990s, played dobro and mandolin with Special Consensus, and since then has performed with such notables as Vassar Clements, Laurie Lewis, Peter Rowan, Claire Lynch, Stacy Phillips, Alan O’Bryant, and Patsy Montana. Keith has played at music festivals throughout the U.S. and has been an instructor at several national music camps including Midwest Banjo Camp, NashCamp and the Puget Sound Guitar Workshop. A mainstay of the Chicago area music scene, he maintains an active performing schedule of Bluegrass and Jazz, and taught at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music for over 15 years; he also writes for DownBeat, Guitar Player and Flatpicking Guitar.