For over 50 years, the Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering has attracted old-time music fans to Battle Ground, Indiana, for a weekend of concerts, workshops and jam sessions. This week on Cultural Manifesto, listen to interviews with musicians and organizers connected to the festival, including Dave Samuelson, Cliff Harrison, and fiddle player Stephanie Coleman. 

Coleman began performing at the Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering as a child. Along with her musical partner Nora Brown, she’s one of the headliners at this year’s festival. You might have seen their recent performance for NPR’s Tiny Desk. 

The Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering began in 1972. Back then, it wasn’t a festival, just a loose circle of musicians and friends gathering under the trees at the Tippecanoe Battlefield, to share their love of old-time fiddle music. What began as a casual gathering of local fiddlers has grown into a nationally respected festival featuring a wide range of American roots music and international fiddle styles, including bluegrass, jazz, Creole, Irish, Mexican, and Scandinavian fiddlers. 

Over the years, the Indiana Fiddlers Gathering has hosted celebrated names in traditional music, including Mike Seeger, John Hartford, Johnny Gimble, Jethro Burns and many others. It also gave early exposure to future stars like Alison Krauss and Chris Thile, who performed at the festival as teenagers.

Listen to a 2017 interview WFYI’s Kyle Long recorded with Brian Wilson, the visionary composer and producer behind the Beach Boys. He died on June 11, 2025, at the age of 82.

The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records and charting 37 songs in the U.S. Top 40. Much of that success was due to Wilson’s visionary production style. which included unorthodox instrumentation, innovative recording techniques, and most notably the band’s iconic vocal harmonies. Those trademark vocal harmonies were directly inspired by the Indianapolis group The Four Freshmen. The Four Freshmen were formed on the campus of Butler University in 1948. Wilson credited the Four Freshmen as his main influence in crafting the Beach Boys’ sound. Wilson was such a big fan, he even recruited Four Freshmen arranger Dick Reynolds to work on several Beach Boys projects. During his conversation with WFYI, Wilson discussed his deep appreciation for The Four Freshmen.

This June, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will premiere a new work from the Indianapolis composer, vocalist and musician Hanna Benn. Benn’s piece is a double concerto for oboe and bassoon titled "A Through Line." Listen to an interview with Hanna Benn, along with ISO’s principal oboe Jennifer Christen and principal bassoon Ivy Ringel.

Benn’s solo work defies classification, featuring intricate vocal layering with refined electronic production. She’s contributed to high profile projects across the modern music landscape. As a vocalist, she can be heard on Meshell Ndegeocello’s Grammy winning album "The Omnichord Real Book" and the Academy Award nominated soundtrack for "Everything Everywhere All at Once." As a composer, her work has been performed at Carnegie Hall.

Listen to an interview with Fort Wayne, Indiana-based musician, composer, arranger and producer Nitish Kulkarni. His latest album Indigo blends traditional Indian music with contemporary electronic sounds. 

Kulkarni began his musical journey as a tabla player, later expanding to keyboards and production. He released his debut album Synesthetic in 2015, and since then he’s released a steady stream of recordings. In addition to his solo work, Kulkarni has performed alongside legendary artists like Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Shridhar Phadke.

Listen to an interview with the acclaimed Gary, Indiana composer and electronic music producer Jlin. Her music has been praised by Pitchfork, NPR, Vogue, Rolling Stone and The New York Times, and she’s collaborated with artists including Björk and Philip Glass. 

Born Jerrilynn Patton in 1987, Jlin’s bold, genre-defying work has reshaped the landscape of experimental electronic music. Her rhythmically dense and emotionally intense style emerged from footwork, a high-speed dance music rooted in the underground music culture of Chicago. But Jlin’s sound evolved over time, becoming an unmistakably original voice that transcends categorization. 

Jlin rose to prominence with her 2015 debut Dark Energy. The album was immediately hailed as a landmark in contemporary electronic music. Both The Quietus and The Wire named it Album of the Year, and Pitchfork included Dark Energy in its Top 20 Albums of 2015. Her follow-up album, Black Origami further solidified her status as a leading avant-garde composer. The album received almost universal acclaim, with The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR, and The Guardian including Black Origami in their the Best Albums of 2017 lists. Jlin’s latest, album Akoma has also garnered widespread critical acclaim. 

Beyond her solo releases, Jlin’s influence has expanded into the worlds of dance, classical music, and performance art. She has composed for the renowned Kronos Quartet and her music has been used by choreographers including Wayne McGregor and Kyle Abraham. Despite her international recognition, Jlin has remained firmly rooted in her hometown Gary, Indiana.

Listen to an interview with the musician and activist Taylor Hall. May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so Hall chose the month of May to release her latest collection of songs, Cheaper Than Therapy. During her recent conversation with WFYI’s Kyle Long, Hall said she hopes the project will help to destigmatize mental health and provide her fans with a message of hope.

Also hear a conversation with Jenny Boyts, CEO of Forty5, a locally owned Indianapolis production company specializing in live music events. Forty5 owns and operates local venues including The Vogue and Turntable, and produces live concert series like Rock the Ruins at Holiday Park. Boyts rose to prominence in Indianapolis through her work with Indy Pride, serving as Indy Pride’s board president for 4 years. Boyts says the relationships she created while building community with Indy Pride have informed her work with Forty5.

Celebrate Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month with music from musicians and composers connected to Indiana. Listen to pop, folk, electronic, classical, hip-hop, and psychedelic rock music featuring Indiana musicians representing Afghanistan, Vietnam, China, India, Myanmar and more.

Listen to an interview with historian Nicole Martinez-LeGrand, director of a new documentary titled Beyond el Barrio. The film focuses on the history of El Barrio, a small community of Mexican immigrants living on the Near Eastside of Indianapolis during the mid-20th Century.

Also, hear an interview with musician Rick Espinoza. He grew up in El Barrio during the 1960s and performed Mexican music with the Indianapolis band Los Latinos.

Listen to an interview with legendary jazz saxophonist and composer Gary Bartz. Bartz has performed with Charles Mingus, Max Roach, Art Blakey, and McCoy Tyner. In 1970, Bartz joined Miles Davis' band, contributing to the seminal Live-Evil sessions. But its Bartz work as a bandleader during the 1970s that cemented his reputation as a jazz icon, from his recordings with the Mizell Brothers, to performances with his group Ntu Troop. A two-time Grammy Award winner, Bartz was recently named an NEA Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Listen to an interview with the percussionist, composer and technologist Deantoni Parks, known for his genre-blending approach and boundary-pushing performances. Parks has collaborated with an extraordinary group of musicians, including Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Andre 3000, Mars Volta, Meshell Ndegeocello, John Cale, Sade and more. He’s also an accomplished composer, releasing critically acclaimed albums, under the name Technoself, and scoring films for directors including Paul Schrader and Mark Ruffalo. Parks was born and raised in Newnan, Georgia, but he’s spent the last few years living in Indianapolis.