2024 Youth Scholar Biographies
Perseus Morgan is a 21-year-old recent graduate of Leeds Conservatoire in England and has been playing the harmonica since he was 13. He is well versed in many styles of music, mainly classical/Baroque, early music, traditional Irish music, and blues.
From Katarokwi/Kingston, Canada, 19-year-old Sam Coons was influenced by Neil Young to pick up diatonic harmonica. Thanks to blues players like James Cotton, they started taking the instrument more seriously and became obsessed after finding Brendan Power’s inventions online. They now enjoy playing bluegrass, jazz, blues and funk on any kind of harmonica they can get their hands on and experimenting with different tunings and setups.
Jackson Baker is a 21-year-old blues player from Pennsylvania. Although he was exposed to blues through his father, a big fan, he didn’t start to really listen to it until high school. After hearing a few tracks by harmonica players like James Cotton and Sonny Boy Williamson II, Jackson decided to pick up the harp. After that it became an addiction, and he couldn’t stop listening and playing to the music of all the great harp players.
Hayden Everding is a 19-year-old harmonica player from Dayton Ohio. He began playing harmonica during a backpacking trip in New Mexico. He performed onstage for the first time at age 15. Since then, the blues bug has stayed with him.