The recipients of this year’s Charlie Derrington Memorial Scholarship to attend the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend have been announced. Four young musicians (aged 13-24) were selected, each of whom will attend the three day instructional weekend with their full tuition, accommodations and some travel costs paid by the scholarship.

The 2006 recipients are:

You can see photos of these young pickers, and hear audio samples from their scholarship applications on the Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend web site. The recipients are chosen based on their playing ability, and on an essay which is part of the application process.

The Charlie Derrington Memorial Scholarship is sponsored by Gibson, who donates a new Gibson instrument each year to be offered in a raffle to fund the scholarship. It is named in honor of Charlie Derrington, a long-time Gibson employee who was tragically killed in an auto accident in August, 2006.

This year, a Gibson RB-250 banjo is being offered in the raffle, and the $10 tickets can be purchased online up until November 1, 2006.

Congratulations to these terrific young bluegrass musicians.

The staff and management of Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend have announced that their annual youth scholarship has been named in honor of Charlie Derrington. Charlie was a valued, long-time employee of Gibson, who sponsors the scholarship, and a friend to Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend co-host Herschel Sizemore.

When Derrington was killed in a tragic accident last month, the idea to give his name to the scholarship seemed like a fine way for Sizemore to honor his friend.

“Charlie was a friend to anyone took the mandolin seriously, and we are very pleased to play a small part in keeping his memory alive. We hope that the young bluegrass players who apply for, and receive the Charlie Derrington Memorial Scholarship each year will take a moment to learn about his important contributions, and we thank Joe Vest at Gibson for consenting to rename the scholarship for Charlie.

The scholarship is open to young bluegrass pickers between the ages of 13 and 24, and will cover their tuition, meals, accomodations and (in some cases) travel expenses for them to spend three days at the annual Roanoke Bluegrass Weekend instructional seminar.

Interested students/parents can find the scholarship details and an application form on the RBW web site. The application deadline is September 15.

The scholarship is funded by a raffle for a new RB-250 banjo, donated by Gibson. Raffle chances can be purchased online, by phone or by mail. Contact information for mail or phone purchases can be found online.

Previous posts on Charlie Derrington:
Gibson established Charlie Derrington Memorial Fund
Charlie Derrington accident in Nashville paper
Charlie Derrington drunk driving victim

The Gibson company has set up a Memorial Fund for the family of Charlie Derrington, whose tragic death in a highway accident we reported last week. Charlie was a valuable (some would say indispensable) employee at Gibson’s acoustic instruments division, and is widely regarded as having primary responsibility for their mandolin line being brought back to credibility in recent years.

You can find the details about the fund on Gibson’s site, but in brief they are:

To make a contribution to the Charlie Derrington Memorial Fund, please send a check to:

The Charlie Derrington Memorial Fund
Gibson Guitar Corp
309 Plus Park Avenue
Nashville, TN 37217
Attention: Becky Dixon Treasury Dept.

Charlie Derrington’s tragic death in a senseless accident on Tuesday night has received some attention in The Tennessean, the primary daily paper in Nashville. The details are not pleasant for any friend of Charlie’s to contemplate.

His funeral will be held today (August 3) at 5:30 p.m. at Pettus-Owen and Wood Funeral Home in Nashville (615-292-3392). Visitation will be from 3:30-5:30 (CDT).

Once again, on behalf of The Bluegrass Blog, our sympathies and condolences are extended to Charlie’s wife Susan and his daughter Anna.

Charlie Derrington, long time employee of the Gibson company and a noted luthier, was killed last night while riding his motorcycle in west Nashville. He was struck by a suspected drunk driver who was traveling against traffic on Briley Parkway, driving in the wrong direction. The suspect fled the scene, but was apprehended shortly thereafter and is in police custody.

Charlie was a friend to a great many people in bluegrass music, and will be remembered as much for his warmth, good humor and love of life as for his many contributions to the world of bluegrass instruments. Though he became known mostly as a builder and the director of the mandolin shop at Gibson, he was also a mandolin player and tenor singer who loved bluegrass music and the people who created it.

He first made waves in the mandolin world when he successfully restored Bill Monroe’s Loar F5 after it was badly damaged in a deliberate act of vandalism. The mandolin was in pieces after being smashed with a fireplace poker, and Charlie was able to separate the fragments of wood from two damaged mandolins, and restore them both to playing condition.

He is survived by his wife and daughter, and we join Charlie’s many friends and admirers in extending our great sadness and condolences to the Derrington family.

This is a tragic and senseless loss to both our music, and the music community who loved Charlie so well.