Festival Director

David Bragger is an Los Angeles-based old-time musician, instructor and co-founder of Tiki Parlour Recordings. He is also the curator of The Old-Time Tiki Parlour. David was an itinerant street magician, collector of South Asian folk tales and filmmaker following his graduation from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Religious Studies. After inheriting his great-uncle’s fiddle, the obsession for old-time began.

After years of visiting with and studying old-time musicians including Mel Durham, Tom Sauber, Dan Gellert, Charlie Acuff, Benton Flippen, Clyde Davenport and Joe Thompson, David is a go-to-guru for learning old-time fiddle, banjo and mandolin. He has students all over the world and is in great demand as a workshop teacher at traditional music festivals. In addition to teaching, he has now started documenting the greatest living old-time musicians for future generations.

David directs, shoots, records, edits and spearheads the vision of Tiki Parlour Recordings. David is also the director of the UCLA Old-Time String Band Ensemble.