Béla Fleck is the renowned ambassador of the musical instrument banjo. He is a world-famous banjo player who has thirty-three Grammy Awards to his name. Fleck has been innovating new technicalities in banjo playing with his band Béla Fleck and The Flecktones.
Fleck is known for his unique way of mixing bluegrass with other genres of music. He took his banjo skills from bluegrass to rock, jazz, etc., to produce fused music. His audience loved every single one of them.
Biography & Wiki Summary
| Popular Name | Béla Fleck |
| Real Name | Béla Anton Leoš Fleck |
| Date of birth | July 10, 1958 |
| Age | 65 years old |
| Place of birth | New York City, USA |
| Father | Not disclosed |
| Mother | Not disclosed |
| Siblings | Not disclosed |
| Status | Married |
| Spouse | Abigail Washburn |
| Children | Two |
| Sons | Juno Fleck and Theodore Wilder Washburn Fleck |
| Occupation | Musician, Composer, and Songwriter |
| Net worth | 2 Million USD |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | White Caucasian |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Zodiac | Cancer |
| Height | Unknown |
| Weight | Unknown |
| Measurement | Unknown |
| Hair color | Brown |
| Eye Color | Brown |
| Complexion | Fair |
| Instagram id | belafleckbanjo |
| belafleckbanjo |
Béla Fleck’s Net Worth
Fleck is a professional banjo player who has been playing with his band, the Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, for ages.
He has been working in the music industry since 1976. His career has not only made him famous but wealthy too.
He has a net worth of 2 Million USD, which is just adding up every year.
MORE: How much is the veteran country singer-songwriter Jerry Salley worth?
Béla Fleck Family, Parents, & Early Life
The 65 years old musician is a native of the city of dreams, New York City.
He has not disclosed anything about his parents, but he has shared that they were musical people.
His parents loved music so much that they even named him after musicians. Fleck got his first name Béla from Béla Bartók, a Hungarian composer. The same goes for his middle name.
The Anton in his name was after Anton Webern, an Australian composer, and the Leoš was after the Czech composer Leoš Janáček.
Fleck already loved music because of his parents. But it was after listening to the theme song of Beverly Hillbillies by Earl Scruggs that he became passionate about banjos. Listening to Duel Banjos after this just fueled his passion even more.
He started playing music from an early age when his grandfather gifted him his first banjo at fifteen.
While traveling back on a train, Fleck met a stranger. The stranger not only tuned his banjo for him but also recommended a book by Pete Wernick on banjo.
It made him determined to take his passion and turn it into a career. He took lessons from experts like Erick Darling and even graduated from Highschool of Music and Arts.
After graduating, he joined the Tasty Licks and started performing with them. After some time, he went solo and released his hit album in 1979.
He then played here and there for the next ten years before forming Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, with whom he is performing till this date.
As much as he is successful in his career, he is equally successful in his personal life. He has been married to Abigail Washburn since 2008 and is the father of two sons.
Béla Fleck Wife and Relationship
Fleck is happily married to another excellent banjo player Abigail Washburn. The couple met each other in Nashville at a square dance program.
He was playing in the program while his wife was dancing. Both of them had many things in common, including their love for banjo, which made it easy for them to bond. In 2008, the couple took their vows as husband and wife.
They were already performing together even before getting married and continued this tradition even after getting married.
Fleck performed in many shows with his wife. He even was the producer of her first solo album.
The couple complemented each other perfectly and are enjoying a blissful married life to this day. They are even parents to two sons, Juno and Theodore. Juno was born in May 2013, while Theodore was born in June 2020.
Education and Music
Fleck was passionate about banjo and music ever since he was a teenager, and he always wanted to make a career out of it.
So, he went to the School of Music and Arts in New York. He graduated from high school, but after that, he did not continue his academic studies. Instead, he joined a band and started performing.
Career and Music
The four-decades-long musical journey of Béla started after he graduated from high school. Once his high school was over, he moved to Boston to make a career in the music industry.
In Boston, he joined the Tasty Licks and started performing with them. After gaining some experience, Fleck went for a solo career by releasing his first solo album Crossing The Tracks. The album became a big hit and Frets Magazine even quoted it as the best overall album.
As a solo artist, he also performed on the streets until he formed the Spectrum in 1981. However, in the same year, he disbanded it and joined New Grass Revival.
He was with the New Grass Revival for nine years before forming a band with Victor Wooten. They called this band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. Fleck and Wooten recruited other members too and started recording songs.
Their songs became popular among the audience who enjoyed fused jazz. The band then gained a massive fan following, and they started performing in several festivals too. They even collaborated with other big names of the music industry.
To this day, the band is going strong, and their audience is increasing every year.
Interested in reading more about such artists?
Here are a few more:
