Stuart Duncan (born April 14, 1964) is an American bluegrass musician who plays the fiddle,

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected string ...

, and

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

Life

Duncan was born in

Quantico, Virginia Quantico ( or ; formerly Potomac) is a town in Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 480 at the 2010 census. Quantico is approximately 35 miles southwest of Washington, DC, bordered by the Potomac River to the east a ...

, and raised in Santa Paula, California, where he played in the school band. He is married with three children. Duncan has been a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band since 1985. He also works as a

session musician Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...

and has played with numerous well-known performers, including

George Strait George Harvey Strait Sr. (born May 18, 1952) is an American country music singer, songwriter, actor, and music producer. Strait is considered one of the most influential and popular recording artists of all time. In the 1980s, he was credited fo ...

Dolly Parton Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...

, Guy Clark,

Reba McEntire Reba Nell McEntire (born March 28, 1955), or simply Reba, is an American country music singer and actress. Dubbed " the Queen of Country", she has sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Since the 1970s, McEntire has placed over 100 single ...

, and

Barbra Streisand Barbara Joan "Barbra" Streisand (; born April 24, 1942) is an American singer, actress and director. With a career spanning over six decades, she has achieved success in multiple fields of entertainment, and is among the few performers awar ...

. In 2006, he toured with the

Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler (born 12 August 1949) is a British singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Born in Scotland and raised in England, he was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits. He pursued a s ...

– Emmylou Harris Roadrunning tour, and he appears on their '' All the Roadrunning'' and '' Real Live Roadrunning'' albums. In 2008, he joined

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the English rock band Led Zeppelin for all of its existence from 1968 until 1980, when the band broke up following th ...

and Alison Krauss on the tour for their critically acclaimed album '' Raising Sand''. He appeared on Transatlantic Sessions Series 4 broadcast by the BBC in September/October 2009. In 2011, Duncan collaborated with cellist

Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma ('' Chinese'': 馬友友 ''Ma Yo Yo''; born October 7, 1955) is an American cellist. Born in Paris to Chinese parents and educated in New York City, he was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four and a half. He graduated from ...

, bassist Edgar Meyer, mandolinist Chris Thile, and singer Aoife O'Donovan on the album '' The Goat Rodeo Sessions''. The album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' Classical, Classical Crossover, and Bluegrass charts and reached number eighteen on the ''

Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artist ...

.'' It also won the

Grammy Award for Best Folk Album The Grammy Award for Best Folk Album is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for releasing albums in the folk genre. Honors in several ...

and the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical in 2013. In 2013, Duncan accompanied

Diana Krall Diana Jean Krall (born November 16, 1964) is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, including over six million in the US. On December 11, 2009, '' Billboard'' maga ...

as a sideman on her '' Glad Rag Doll'' tour. In 2015 Duncan appeared on one of the tracks from the Jericho Summer album ''Night Train''. Playing jazz on the violin, Duncan again toured with Diana Krall in 2018. In 2020, Duncan once again collaborated with Ma, Meyer, Thile, and O'Donovan, releasing the album '' Not Our First Goat Rodeo''. Like the group's previous album, reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Classical, Classical Crossover, and Bluegrass charts.

Awards

Duncan has received numerous awards. As a member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band, he won the Grammy Award for Best Bluegrass Album in 1994 and 1996. Duncan was named the

Academy of Country Music The Academy of Country Music (ACM) was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Among the founders were Eddie Miller, Tommy Wiggins, and Mickey and Chris Christensen. They wanted to promote country musi ...

Fiddle Player of the Year for 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2004, and Specialty Instrument Player of the Year for 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Stuart American country fiddlers American country singer-songwriters 1964 births Living people American bluegrass fiddlers American bluegrass mandolinists American country guitarists American male guitarists Singer-songwriters from California People from Quantico, Virginia People from Santa Paula, California Grammy Award winners Singer-songwriters from Virginia Guitarists from California Guitarists from Virginia 20th-century American guitarists Country musicians from California Country musicians from Virginia 20th-century American male musicians Nashville Bluegrass Band members American male singer-songwriters Lyle Lovett and His Large Band members