We are excited and proud to announce the winner of the 2026 Bill Verdier Irish Music Scholarship award! Congratulations to Brooks Coleman, a talented young banjo player from Baltimore, Maryland. The award will cover Brooks’ tuition and travel to attend the Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York. Students at the school attend two classes each day for their specific instruments, as well as faculty concerts, ceili dances, and group sessions in the evening.
Brooks found the world of Irish traditional music a few years ago when he attended a session in Baltimore with his parents. “By the time we had to leave I was enthralled. I loved the music — the way it moved, the rhythms, everything about it.”
He soon found the tenor banjo, and after about a year of study attended his first Baltimore Irish Tenor Banjo Summit. “I had never been to a concert like the Banjo Summit instructors’ concert. The banjo players were, for the first time I’d ever heard, the highlight. They weren’t drowned out by the fiddles or accordions. It was just pure, unbridled banjo, and it was beautiful.“ One of Brooks’ goals in attending the Catskills Irish Arts Week is to refine his session playing “so that it works with other musicians, rather than competing against their sound.”
From Bill Wolfe, Board President of the Scholarship: “Brooks is a thoughtful and talented student and musician and will inspire others with his unique perspective and approach to Irish music. We are very proud to offer him this scholarship, honoring Bill Verdier, to support his goals.”
We would like to say thank you to all who applied for this year’s scholarship. We are now accepting applications for scholarship opportunities in 2027; please visit our applications page. We are extremely grateful for the generosity of the many individuals who loved Bill, shared his passion for Irish traditional music, and donated to make the scholarship possible this year and into the future. For more information or to learn how to support our efforts, please visit our home page.
Find out about other Scholarship winners here.