This website is the brainchild of American fiddle player, Brian Wicklund, and three British musicians: Ian Nicholls, Andy Metcalfe, and Peter Earle. A year ago, while teaching at the prestigious Sore Fingers bluegrass academy in England, Brian talked with one of his students, Ian Nicholls, about how great it would be to put classes like the ones at Sore Fingers on the internet. Many hours of earnest conversation later, during which Andy and Peter somehow got involved, The Bluegrass College was born. The British contingent is interesting because they have all come to bluegrass the way we all do. They have fallen in love with the music and can't get enough of it. All three use the website content themselves to improve their playing and learn new tunes… in fact Andy has admitted to suggesting particular tunes simply because he wants to learn them!

Brian is a well-known performer and teacher who is based in Minnesota. In his thirty years of playing fiddle and mandolin, he has been a member of Stoney Lonesome, the Kathy Kallick, Chris Stuart, and Judith Edelman Bands. These days he plays with Brother Mule www.brothermule.com. Brian is the author of the Mel Bay Publications best-selling series The American Fiddle Method books, CDs, and DVDs. www.brianwicklund.com

Ian is one of the founder members of London based music production company 'Kick Production'. Kick composes and produces music for film and television and for the last ten years Ian in particular has specialized in composing music for children's animation. Kick will celebrate its 20th birthday this year. Ian plays bluegrass fiddle for fun.

Andy Metcalfe took a musical degree and then played with rock bands Squeeze and Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, amongst many others, between 1976 and 1994. He's now a producer and engineer in London, and has taken up flat-picking. He is in a bluegrass band with Ian (Buffalo Smoke) which plays in the UK.

Peter Earle has over twenty years experience in information technology and is responsible for the daily operations of the website. He's also looking forward to taking the online instruction himself.

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