We kicked off the fall season of “Profiles in Folk” in fine fashion with 60 minutes of high energy (“folk music in overdrive”) bluegrass music and interviews with Yale University’s Professors of Bluegrass. The straight-ahead bluegrass ensemble was founded in the late 1980s by two Yale faculty members and has played on through the years in various configurations. We welcomed founder Dr. Peter Salovey, now provost of Yale, on upright bass; Dr. Craig Harwood, dean of Davenport College, on mandolin; Dr. Oscar Hills, an associate clinical professor in psychiatry and a practicing psychoanalyst, on banjo; Matt Smith, a senior at Yale, on fiddle, and Sten Havumaki, from Cambridge, Mass., who was formerly associated with Yale, on guitar.

The Professors of Bluegrass make a return visit to the mainstage under the stars at the Connecticut Folk Festival in New Haven on Sept. 12. We finished up the evening with selections from other performers scheduled to appear at the festival and at other Connecticut folk venues this weekend.

A tip of the top hat to WSHU Engineer Stu Kennedy, who mixed the sound for the evening.