Kara Barnard

2022 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion, Kara Barnard has entertained audiences from coast to coast and internationally. She has 7 recordings, played countless studio sessions, appeared on national television programs, and has been featured in articles in publications including Guitar Player Magazine.

Kara has spent the last few years focusing on teaching and creating events that would allow other musicians to grow and shine. She celebrated her successes by entering and becoming the 2022 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion, and is touring, performing and teaching at festivals across the country.

Kara teaches guitar, mandolin, banjo and dulcimer and has a teaching roster of 48 private, in-person students each week plus group lessons at a local YMCA.

Kara Barnard developed the Silver Strings program, teaching residents living in assisted living facilities how to play mountain dulcimer. The Silver Strings program includes curriculum Kara created specifically to serve a demographic often challenged by memory loss, hearing and vision loss, arthritis and paralysis due to strokes. The program currently serves campuses in Indiana and Kentucky and has placed over 220 dulcimers in the hands of their residents.

Kara created the Indiana State Fingerstyle Contest in 2010, bringing contestants from all over the world to compete each July in Nashville, Indiana. Many of those contestants go on to compete in the International Competition during the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas each September.

Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, Kara Barnard is once again making new friends at festivals and events around the country and has a new batch of songs to be released in 2024.