The Accidentals
Long before glowing acclaim from NPR and Billboard, packed shows, unforgettable festival appearances, millions of streams, and collaborations with everyone from BTS to Contemporary Youth Orchestra, the journey of The Accidentals commenced in a public high school classroom in Traverse City, MI. As the story goes, concertmaster violinist Savannah Buist, and cellist, Katie Larson, raised their hands at the request for volunteers to play a music boosters concert and wound up being musical soulmates.
The Accidentals now host and lead workshops across the country, hoping to inspire other young musicians. They opened a nonprofit in 2020 called Play It Forward, Again and Again, to help provide access to instruments, lessons, and mentors for all aspiring musicians.As advocates for youth music and youth empowerment, they focused extensively on “getting out the young vote” in the 2020 election. They donated over twenty livestreams to raise money for causes including the #iVoted festival, Headcount, Rock the Vote, Arts Quest youth programming, Michigan Music Alliance, Musicians Treatment Foundation, Sweet Relief, MusiCares, Lighthouse Shelter Detroit, Headstart, TREES, Concert for Hunger Chicago, NIVA, and more, while delivering their new single, “How Many Hands” to the 2020 compilation U.S.P.S. – United Songwriters for the People’s Sovereignty.“We’re just paying it forward,” says Sav. “We have an incredible support system and core base of music family that help afford us the opportunity to give back.”
Sav and Katie transferred to Interlochen Arts Academy for the remainder of high school and completed a successful crowdfunding campaign to release Bittersweet only a year later. Shortly after, they met Michael Dause at Blissfest and welcomed him behind the kit as their full-time percussionist, cementing the lineup.
