{{short description|American singer-songwriter (born 1975)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2023}} {{BLP sources|date=March 2018}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Rayna Gellert | background = solo_singer | image = Gellert-fls.jpg | caption = Gellert at MerleFest 2007 | image_size = | birth_name = Rayna Gellert | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1975|12|15}} | origin = Indiana, U.S. | years_active = | instrument = Violin, acoustic guitar, vocals | genre = Folk, americana, bluegrass | label = | website = [http://www.raynagellert.com/ Rayna Gellert's website] }}
'''Rayna Gellert''' (born December 15, 1975) is an American fiddler, acoustic guitarist, singer, and songwriter specializing in old-time music.
Gellert is a former member of the Freight Hoppers. From 2003 to 2009 she performed and recorded with the all-female old-time band Uncle Earl. In 2003, she was a featured performer at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. She has also performed with the dance company Rhythm in Shoes, the West African-influenced band Toubab Krewe, Abigail Washburn, and Scott Miller. She has toured throughout the United States, Europe, and Chile.
She has been a finalist at the Appalachian String Band Music Festival in Clifftop, Fayette County, West Virginia several times.
==Early life and education==
Rayna Gellert was born on December 15, 1975. She grew up in Elkhart, in northern Indiana, formerly lived in Asheville, North Carolina, and is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee<!--Where exactly was she born?-->.<ref name="ourstate">{{cite web |url=https://www.ourstate.com/rayna-gellert/ |title=The Memory Project: Rayna Gellert |first=Heidi |last=Coryell Williams |website=Our State |date=May 31, 2013}}</ref> Her father is the traditional fiddler, banjo player, and singer Dan Gellert. Originally a classically trained violinist, she took up the old-time fiddle in 1994, when she moved to North Carolina to attend Warren Wilson College.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Swannanoa Gathering- Old-Time Week Staff Pg.1 |url=http://www.swangathering.com/Catalog/OT/sgotstaff1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030428023917/http://www.swangathering.com/Catalog/OT/sgotstaff1.html |archive-date=28 April 2003 |access-date=17 January 2022 |website=www.swangathering.com}}</ref> She received a bachelor's degree from Warren Wilson College. Gellert plays a fiddle that belonged to her great-grandfather, a Hungarian orchestral musician, and guitar.<ref name="ourstate" />
== Career == Gellert has played and recorded with Abigail Washburn, Loudon Wainwright III, Tyler Ramsey, Robyn Hitchcock, and others. She has appeared at music festivals including Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, and RockyGrass.<ref name=ourstate/> She has also taught at the John C. Campbell Folk School.
==Discography== ===As leader=== *''Ways of the World'' (2000) *''Old Light- Songs from my Childhood & Other Gone Worlds'' (2012) *''Workin's Too Hard'' (2017)
===With Uncle Earl=== *2004 - ''Going to the Western Slope'' (EP) *2004 - ''Raise A Ruckus'' (EP) *2005 - ''She Waits For Night'' (Rounder) *2007 - ''Waterloo, Tennessee'' (Rounder)
===With Susie Goehring=== *''Starch & Iron'' (2005)
===With Scott Miller===
==== Extended plays ==== *''CoDependents'' (2012)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thescottmiller.com/miller2013_music.html |title=Scott Miller Official Website |website=thescottmiller.com |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130803005012/http://thescottmiller.com/miller2013_music.html |archive-date=3 August 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
===With The Brothers K===
==== Extended plays ==== *''Rayna Gellert & the Brothers K'' (2015)
===With Kieran Kane=== *''The Ledges'' (2018) *''When the Sun Goes Down'' (2019) *''The Flowers That Bloom in Spring'' (2022)
===Filmography=== ''Killers of the Flower Moon'' (2023)
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.raynagellert.com/ Rayna Gellert's website] *[http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=46363725 Rayna Gellert MySpace page] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20030428023917/http://www.swangathering.com/Catalog/OT/sgotstaff1.html Rayna Gellert bio] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20071017001921/http://freewebs.com/crookedrain/interviewsnews.htm Rayna Gellert interview]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gellert, Rayna}} Category:Old-time musicians Category:Living people Category:Appalachian old-time fiddlers Category:Musicians from Asheville, North Carolina Category:People from Elkhart, Indiana Category:1975 births Category:Uncle Earl members Category:Old-time fiddlers Category:21st-century American fiddlers Category:American women fiddlers Category:American women singer-songwriters Category:Singers from Nashville, Tennessee Category:Singer-songwriters from Tennessee Category:20th-century American violinists Category:Singer-songwriters from Indiana Category:Singer-songwriters from North Carolina Category: 20th-century American Jews Category: 21st-century American Jews Category: Jewish American musicians Category:20th-century American singer-songwriters Category:20th-century American women singers Category:21st-century American singer-songwriters Category:21st-century American women singers