Bennett Sullivan

Bennett Sullivan’s musical path has never been straight and narrow, but rather a winding track through the wilderness of space and time. Tracing his steps from peak to peak, a continuous pattern emerges; one of accepting challenges, taking big leaps, and ultimately rising to new heights, only to find another mountain and begin again.

Raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, he was introduced to the native sounds of bluegrass music by his father, a guitarist, who first encouraged Bennett to learn banjo and then guitar. After taking an immediate interest in the instrument, Bennett’s dreams were quickly quashed by a round of uninspiring music store banjo lessons with a chain- smoking teacher and a crummy beginner’s banjo. He promptly quit the instrument altogether. After bringing home an autobiography written for a middle school project, his father saw that his son’s biggest regret was quitting the banjo. “He went straight out and bought a nicer instrument, and I was hooked,” says Bennett.

With Bela Fleck and Tony Rice as his two biggest influences, Bennett immersed himself in music and surrounded himself with talented teachers, collaborators and companions. Already on an upward trajectory, an unprecedented boost came in the unsuspecting form of an unanswered call from an unknown number during a wedding on Long Island. Picking his phone up to check the message afterwards, Bennett heard a familiar voice say “Hey, this is Steve Martin....” The next two years were a fantastic whirlwind, as Bennett was featured in the company of “Bright Star,” a musical theatre phenomenon written by Martin and Edie Brickell. Soon he was appearing in eight shows a week at the Kennedy Center, and on Broadway.

Eager to start a new and exciting musical chapter, and escape Brooklyn rent, Bennett moved his family to the enchanted Pisgah Forest of North Carolina. He dove headlong into a groundbreaking music-education technology business which he co-founded and built tirelessly. He worked overtime, shooting tutorial videos during gas-stops while touring the country with the likes of Zoe & Cloyd, Balsam Range, and the highly acclaimed genre-bending collective of Ben Sollee and Kentucky Native, all while raising a child and keeping his ever-present positive spirit behind the rolling of his fingers and his hands on the wheel.