News

2022 dates for the 9th Annual Richter Camp for the Rest of Us featuring Don Julin have been set for Wednesday July 13th through Saturday July 16th at the Grant Street Inn in Bloomington, Indiana.

“A Night of Mandolin Music: Jim Richter Mandolin Camp Faculty Concert” celebrates mandolin music across its spectrum—orchestral, folk, jazz, bluegrass, rock, and blues. The Jim Richter Mandolin Camp for the Rest of Us is in its 12th year and has been a center of mandolin instruction based in Bloomington, Indiana since 2011. This concert features camp faculty: Don Julin (Billy Strings; writer of Mandolins for Dummies), Sharon Gilchrist (Tony Rice; Peter Rowan, John Reischman), Laurelyn Dossett (Rhiannon Giddens; Levon Helm), and Jim Richter (blues/rock mandolin educator; Gordon Bonham). Joining as special guests are Gordon Bonham, the Banister Bluegrass Band, the Columbus Mandolin Orchestra, and others. This free event is sponsored by the Jim Richter Mandolin Camp, WFHB radio, the Grant Street Inn, and Kimble Mandolins. More about the camp and its faculty can be found at www.richtermandolincamp.com.

This year’s 12th Richter Mandolin Camp Faculty Concert will be held at Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington IN on Friday 7/11/2025 from 7 to 10P. It will be free to the public with priority seating for camp attendees and their guests.

Performing will be

• Jim Richter
• Sharon Gilchrist
• Don Julin
• Laurelyn Dossett
• Columbus Mandolin Orchestra
• Gordon Bonham
• Banister Bluegrass Band
• Will Kimble
• and more!

Seating is not reserved, other than for camp attendees. Door will open at 6:30P. No ticket required.

The concert is sponsored by the Richter Mandolin Camp, Grant Street Inn, Kimble Mandolins, and WFHB in Bloomington, Indiana.

The Richter Mandolin Camp is excited to announce Sharon Gilchrist as one of our mandolin instructors for 2025. Sharon began touring the national bluegrass circuit in Texas for several years before earning a BA in Mandolin Performance at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. For two decades Sharon has performed with many of the groundbreaking legends in bluegrass and new acoustic music including The Peter Rowan and Tony Rice Quartet, Scott Nygaard and John Reischman in The Harmonic Tone Revealers, Darol Anger, Tony Trischka, The CA Bluegrass Reunion Band, Laurie Lewis and the Right Hands, Uncle Earl and many others. She is also a respected and influential music educator offering private mandolin instruction, multiple online mandolin courses at http://www.pegheadnation.com, as well as teaching at music camps internationally. In 2024, Sharon joined the John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project as a featured artist and co-producer on their Vol 2. album, to be released in February 28, 2025. Sharon lives in Nashville, TN and currently performs with the John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project Trio and the CA Bluegrass Reunion Band. 

The 2025 Richter Mandolin Camp for the Rest of Us has opened registration. This year instructors are Jim Richter, Don Julin, Lauren Price Napier, and Laurelyn Dossett. More information can be found at the 2025 Camp Info page: https://richtermandolincamp.com/2025-richter-mandolin-camp-12th-annual/

Very excited that we are once again a few days from the annual Mandolin Camp for the Rest of Us! There is nothing more energizing than teaching with people you love as humans and deeply respect as musicians and educators. Camp has continued with the expanded teaching staff–me (Jim Richter), Don Julin, Mike Compton, and Laurelyn Dossett. We have more than a full camp. This camp strives to stay intimate and at 31 students this year, we have expanded camp as far as it can without compromising the spirit of the camp.

The Richter Mandolin Camp is scheduled for July 10th through July 13th, 2024. Registration page live and camp 2/3rds full. If interested in attending, please reach out to me!

Sorry because it sounds so cliche, but 2023 Richter Mandolin Camp for the Rest of Us was magical. Yes, I said it, magical. We had a tight-knit supportive community of mandolinists who encouraged each other in a way that produced moments of joy, poignancy, and sublimation. From classroom work to student recital, this cohort of students was incomparable.

And, speaking of incomparable, having Mike Compton, Don Julin, and Laurelyn Dossett on staff was nothing short of remarkable. Don has been my compadre going back to 2012. His voice is very much in the fabric of this camp. But so is Mike’s, as Mike is really the only person I could site as a mandolin mentor–someone who I actively sought out to learn more about this wonderful 8-string instrument. And the breakout star was Laurelyn. Campers were very appreciative of having a break from the male mandolin know-it-all instruction to have time with her for harmony vocalizing and songwriting. Plus her performance of Zeppelin’s “Rain Song” at the concert left individuals speechless.

The concert. Wow. From the Banister Family Bluegrass Band (Roger Banister, Denise Kocur, Daryl Jones, and yours truly), to Laurelyn, Mike, Don, and Gordon Bonham, we covered a wide array of mandolin music in a little under 2 and 1/2 hours.

So where are we for 2024? The 11th Annual Richter Mandolin Camp for the Rest of Us will be Wednesday July 10th through Saturday July 13th, 2024 in Bloomington Indiana. You can learn more at the information page. Registration is live.

The Jim Richter Blues Mandolin podcast captures all of the Mandolin Blues Lick of the Day series and any other blues-related videos that I post. Consider subscribing to it for weekly, if not daily, content!

Tickets are now available in the Shop for the faculty concert to be held Friday 7/14/2023. More information here on the Concert page.