Tara Linhardt

Founder and Guide

Music Arts Adventures

 

Tara Linhardt first began studying Nepali culture in college when she attended the prestigious University of Wisconsin College Year in Nepal Program. During this year, she studied tabla (classical Indian drumming), yoga, massage, meditation, and traveled with and assisted a Nepali Environmental organization, along with her studies of Nepali language, history and culture. While doing her studies, she lived with local Nepali families and learned constantly from her helpful and gracious Nepali hosts and friends. 

 

She then lived and studied for a year in Chiang Mai, Thailand and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Wisconsin. She furthered her studies with a Masters in Education from Shenandoah University. 

 

After college, she followed her interests in music and culture back in the US, where she went back to the culture of her home state of Virginia and became a bluegrass musician. She has spent years playing, performing, and teaching traditional styles of music. She has won first place in mandolin contests such as the Mount Airy Fiddler’s Convention, the Maury River Fiddler’s Convention, and the Carol County Fiddler’s Convention just to name a few. She has taught privately, at festivals, and has taught all levels of mandolin at the Traditions Week of the Common Ground on the Hill Program at McDaniel College. In addition to performing traditional American music she has also performed with well known and respected  Nepali musicians.

 

She is a founding member of the non-profit, The Mountain Music Project, with which she has helped to make a documentary film comparing Nepali and Appalachian traditional music cultures and to make a collaborative CD featuring the two musical styles. The non-profit seeks to help encourage the preservation and appreciation of traditional music communities. Below is a picture of her playing Nepali music at the National Geographic debut of the documentary film in Washinton, DC.