Life

Local nonprofit wins grant to continue David Holt's State of Music

David Holt and Balsam Range.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 12, 2018

The Hendersonville-based Will & Deni McIntyre Foundation has been awarded a $15,000 grant from the Perry N. Rudnick Endowment Fund of the Community Foundation of Henderson County to help fund the fourth season of David Holt’s State of Music, an Emmy-nominated public TV series that premiered on North Carolina Public Television in 2015. The show is distributed nationally by PBS.

“David Holt’s State of Music features real talent in real locations around our region,” says the show’s director, Deni McIntyre, who lives in Hendersonville. The program’s third season, which will air on UNC-TV beginning in December, features mandolin legend Sam Bush, IBMA Guitar Player of the Year Molly Tuttle, young country blues artist Jerron “Blind Boy” Paxton, champion fiddler and step dancer April Verch, mid-life breakout artist Joe Newberry, and Dobro master Jerry Douglas. The season was shot on location at the Haw River Ballroom, the Hayti Cultural Center in Durham, the Asheville Guitar Bar, Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage outside Nashville, The Down Home in Johnson City  and historic Hachland Hill Farm in Joelton, Tennessee. Series host David Holt is a four-time Grammy Award winner who lives in Asheville.

The Will & Deni McIntyre Foundation was established in 2009 to raise the profile of the arts and selected non-profits through creation of videos, books, and photography for websites and related media. The foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.