Background
Pete Wernick was born in New York City and began playing the banjo at the age of fourteen.
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Pete Wernick
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He pursued studies at Columbia University, hosting New York City"s only bluegrass radio program in the 1960s on WKCR-FM and earning a Doctor of Philosophy in sociology, thus the moniker "Doctor Banjo".
Career
He is a five-string banjo player who has been involved in the bluegrass music scene since the 1970s, writing several instruction books and videos on how to play the banjo. He"s also known for his own musical style called Niwot music He served from 1986 to 2001 as the first president of the International Bluegrass Music Association.
In 1970 while working at Cornell University, he formed Country Cooking in Ithaca, New York together with Tony Trischka, Russian Barenberg, John Miller, and Nondi Leonard.
They recorded two albums for Rounder Records, adding the talents of Kenny Kosek, Harry Gilmore (later known as Lou Martin), and Andy Statman. The music was showcased on his 1977 solo album "Doctor Banjo Steps Out".
In January 1978, with O"Brien, Charles Sawtelle, and Mike Scap, he started the bluegrass band Hot Rize. Nick Forster replaced Scap in May, 1978, completing the band"s classic lineup that recorded and performed nationally and internationally for 12 years, through April, 1990.
Hot Rize recorded many Wernick-penned originals, including the standard "Just Like You", and instrumentals "Gone Fishing" and "Wild Ride".
After disbanding as a full-time unit, the group continued with several performances a year until 1998, the year before Sawtelle"s death. In 1986 the Board of the newly formed IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association) elected Wernick its first president, a position he held until 2001. In 2010, the Wernicks became the first Americans to tour in Russia as a bluegrass act, performing at the first annual Russian bluegrass festival in Vologda and Semenkovo, and in Saint St. Petersburg.
Wernick is a prominent teacher of bluegrass, having hosted music camps since 1980 and now conducting ten or more each year.
Since 1999 the camps have focused mostly on bluegrass jamming for all bluegrass instruments. Wernick has produced 10 instructional videos for Homespun and his books "Bluegrass Banjo" and "Bluegrass Songbook" have together sold over a third of a million copies.
In 2010 Wernick created a national network of bluegrass teachers certified in "the Wernick Method" to teach bluegrass jamming. Wernick is also a survivor of the United Airlines Flight 232 air disaster.
He composed a song inspired by that incident, called "A Day In "89 (You Never Know)", however has not released a recording of it yet.
Membership
Wernick was one of the members of the short-lived bluegrass supergroup Men with Banjos who Know How to Use Them, a group that included Steve Martin and Earl Scruggs among its other members.
