Julie is the director and founder of RBMC. Julie started RBMC out of a desire to have a more intimate experience with music and music education in beautiful and wild places. She is a co-founder and was the artistic director ad n part of the management team of Pickin’ in the Pines Bluegrass and Acoustic Music Festival for the first 17 years. She currently runs the Workshop Educational stage at Pickin’ and is the Festival Advisor and liaison to the Flagstaff Friends of Traditional Music where she serves as a board member.

Her interest in bluegrass started in Pittsburgh, PA when she heard Norman and Nancy Blake, and later, Tony Rice. After moving to the Bay Area in 1980 she started working at the famous Freight and Salvage Coffee House as a “kitchenette” and heard all the greats including Bill Monroe, Tony Rice, Laurie Lewis (Grant Street), Kathy Kallick (Good Old Persons), Ralph Stanley, David Grisman, Jim & Jesse, Frank Wakefield, Kate Wolf, Vern & Ray, to name just a few. This sealed the deal and she became obsessed with the form, including getting heavily involved in co-creating the nonprofit the Berkeley Society for the Preservation of Traditional Music. She is currently board emeritus.

The camp has been quite successful despite setbacks, like COVID, forest fires, and location changes. Turning these challenges into opportunities the “Musical Meandering Series” was born which takes the camp model to places like historic hotels (The Plaza in Las Vegas, NM and La Posada Hotel in Winslow) and on the San Juan River for a floating jam fest.

Julie is an experienced singer and performer and currently plays with the BlueMoon Trio, a regional bluegrass band. She also writes songs, loves to cook, loves and cherishes her husband Roger Brace who supports and helps out at all the adventures and hairbrained schemes. Julie enjoys playing and performing music—more than anything!— with friends from all over the world in intimate settings, especially around a campfire.