Tara Linhardt is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist whose focus for years has been in performing and teaching mandolin. She has won many awards for her skills as an instrumentalist and some for songwriting. She has taken first place in such contests as The Mt. Airy Fiddler’s Convention, the Maury River Fiddler’s Convention, Watermelon Park Festival, and The Deer Creek Fiddler’s Convention just to name a few.  She also has been nominated in multiple years for Washington DC bluegrass instrumentalist of the year. She performs in her Bluegrass, Swing Jazz, and Himalayan-Appalachian bands. She has performed and presented at National Geographic, The Smithsonian Folklike Festival, The Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, The 9:30 Club, The Rubin Museum, and varieties of other venues, music festivals, and universities.

She has a long history of teaching both private and group classes of a variety of styles and levels and teaching all ages of students. She has a Master of Education as well as years of learning music in the trenches of the bluegrass and old-time festivals. Tara loves to make learning both very effective and fun. She can teach not just how to play the music, but can also teach about traditional musics and their related cultures, theory, and histories as well.