Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival
Press Release
Contact: Dr. Joe Marasco
Executive Director
www.icmf.com
February 3, 2020
Country and bluegrass superstar Ricky Skaggs, featured prominently in Ken Burns’s recent Country Music documentary on PBS, will make a not-to-be-missed appearance at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival on February 9.
This 7:30 PM concert will be held at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort, 39 Beach Lagoon Road in Fernandina Beach. Tickets for this and every concert in the 2020 season are available at www.aicmf.com or 904/261-1779.
Ricky Skaggs was born in Cordell, Kentucky in 1954. When country music legend Bill Monroe came to Martha, Kentucky for a performance, he called six-year-old Ricky up to the stage to play, placing his own mandolin around his neck and adjusting the strap to fit Ricky’s small frame. By age seven, the prodigy had performed with bluegrass giants Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs on their popular syndicated television show, for which he earned his first paycheck as a musician.
Ricky entered the world of professional music in 1971, and as his popularity soared, he garnered eight awards from the Country Music Association and several Grammys in the 1980s. At that time, renowned guitarist and producer, Chet Atkins, credited Skaggs with “single-handedly” saving country music.
Ricky established his own record label in 1997, and since then, he and his bluegrass band, Kentucky Thunder, have released 12 consecutive Grammy-nominated albums, eight of which have won the award. In 2018, he was inducted into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame, the International Bluegrass Music’s Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Upcoming concerts of the Festival’s 2020 season include the Dover Quartet on February 16 and the Christiania Piano Trio on February 23.
About the AICMF
Now in its 19th season, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival is one of the nation’s most respected music festivals. The Festival is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Visit us on Facebook.