Richard Cifersky is an internationally recognized banjo wizard from Pezinok, Slovak Republic.

He currently be performs with both the award-winning, internationally touring bluegrass band Fragment as well as 29 Strings. Richard is a two-time winner of the Slovak Bluegrass Music Association (SkBMA) “Banjo Player of the Year” award (1999/2000) as well as a founding member and past president of the organization.  As part of the group Fragment, Richard won the 2004 “European Bluegrass Band of the Year” award at the European World of Bluegrass
(EWOB) festival in Holland.
 
Richard is the owner of the Velvet Music record label and has produced several
albums for other groups as well as two of his own solo projects, Rainy Day (2008)
and New Gallop (2004).  A complete list of the recordings Richard has played on or
produced can be found at: music.  To date, Richard’s agency has produced 15 albums.

Richard has also toured with award-winning American bluegrass artists Valerie Smith
& Liberty Pike of Bell Buckle, Tenn.

Richard became fascinated with bluegrass music while in a local scout troop where he learned to play a guitar given to him by his father.  Around age 15, Richard fell in love with the banjo and spent his first earnings to purchase one.  He is heavily influenced by Palo Ochaba and Jano Bratinka as well as American bluegrass artists such as Alison Krauss and Union Station, Bluegrass Highway, J.D. Crowe and the New South, Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver and many others.

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