Ralph Rinzler (20 July 1934 — 2 July 1994) was an American mandolinist, folksinger, photographer and renowned folklorist, best known as the co-organizer of the annual summer [url=https://discogs.com/label/657754]Smithsonian Folklife Festival[/url] in Washington, D.C., from its inception in 1967 until 1976, and as founding director of the Smithsonian's undefined. He also played in
The Greenbriar Boys in the early-to-mid 1960s. As a prolific researcher and phonographic archivist, Ralph extensively researched and documented the work of pioneering traditional American music performers, such as
Doc Watson and
Bill Monroe, who gained international recognition in part due to his efforts.
Rinzler grew up in Passaic, New Jersey, and was introduced to folk music and ethnography by his uncle, Harvard professor George Lyman Kittredge, who gave young Ralph a collection of 10" shellacs from undefined. At high school, he befriended and briefly mentored
David Grisman. Ralph enrolled in undefined in Pennsylvania, a decision he later regretted as the school had an extremely limited music department. Rinzler decided to double major in French, concurrently playing mandolin with several student bands and co-organizing an annual folk festival on campus with one of his roommates
Roger Abrahams. In 1956, after receiving Bachelor's degree, he went to Europe to further pursue French studies at undefined in Paris. Soon afterward, his friend, folksinger
Peggy Seeger, convinced Rinzler to abandon linguistics and come to England, where Ralph met Peggy's father, a notable musicologist and scholar
Charles Seeger and her husband
Ewan MacColl. They subsequently introduced Rinzler to [url=https://discogs.com/artist/489912]Bert Lloyd[/url] and
Alan Lomax — all four played a decisive role in Ralph's life-long commitment to the Folk Revival movement.
In 1959, Rinzler returned to the United States and soon joined
The Greenbriar Boys, a New York bluegrass band then mostly known for touring with singer-songwriter
Joan Baez. Ralph Rinzler played in the trio's most prominent line-up for four years, appearing on two critically-acclaimed Vanguard albums, their [url=https://discogs.com/master/408923]self-titled LP[/url] in 1962 and '64
Ragged But Right! LP. They toured all around East Coast and regularly performed in New York's Greenwich Village, including numerous appearances as
Bob Dylan's opening act at undefined. Besides the Greenbriar Boys and Joan Baez, Rinzler collaborated with other prominent American folk performers and vocalists, including
Hazel Dickens,
Clarence Ashley,
Del McCoury, and
Bill Keith.
In 1967, after serving as the undefined's programming director for three years, Ralph Rinzler joined the Vanguard as co-founder of the Festival of American Folklife (now the
Smithsonian Folklife Festival). After the Bicentennial Festival in 1976, he became the Office of Folklife Programs director, initiating the 'Smithsonian Folklife Studies' publication series and developing a full-fledged center for research, publication, and presentation of programs in American culture and folklore. In 1990, Rinzler retired as the Center's Assistant Secretary Emeritus; he died four years later at 60. Rinzler is a Fellow of the undefined and had Smithsonian's [url=https://discogs.com/label/1434193]CFCH[/url] sound collection posthumously renamed the
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections in his honor in 1998.
