began playing the tuba, bass and banjo at age 15. Shortly thereafter he realized that music was his future and that he wanted to have a career in music. After emersing himself in music study throughout high school, he went on to the Crane School of Music as a tuba major but formed a Bluegrass group to continue his banjo development. Hopkins was a winner of the Crane Concerto Competition on tuba in '95-'96 and graduated in 1996 with a degree in music education and a certificate of tuba performance.

Shortly after graduating college, he joined the Vermont based Bluegrass band, Breakaway, and his real Bluegrass career began. During his five-year tenure with Breakaway, Hopkins contributed original banjo instrumentals on two recording projects and became an intregal part of the band's sound. After moving to the Albany, NY area in 2006 he decided he wanted to start his own Bluegrass band and the plan for Fairview Avenue was born.

is is the middle child of three sisters originally from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. She came from a musical family that included fiddle and folk music.  She studied piano throughout high school and always found a musical outlet while at SUNY Plattsburgh either singing in a choral group or continuing her piano practice in area musicals.  Elizabeth met her future husband Scott through Scott's brother Derrick, who asked her to play piano in an upstate NY production of West Side Story.  After attending a bluegrass festival with Scott that summer of '05, she was hooked and started listening to Rhonda Vincent and Alicia Nugent.

While forming Fairview Avenue, Scott wanted Liz to be part of the band playing bass so that music would always be "in the house for the kids". It wasn’t the fiddle she had always wanted to play, but the bass provided Elizabeth with an opportunity to learn a stringed instrument (and the bass is really just a big fiddle!). After getting over the initial frustrations of learning the bass fiddle, it became fun for her and she was able to be more expressive in her singing.

When not performing with Fairview Avenue, Elizabeth works part time as a registered nurse in Schenectady, NY, and is the mother to two beautiful children, Allison and Carter.

has been a musician since the age of 8, beginning with piano lessons, adding saxophone in the fourth grade and finally taking up the guitar in middle school. He spent his high-school years playing along with classic rock CDs in his bedroom and making demos on his home computer.

Following High School, Tony pursued a Bachelor’s degree in music studio production at SUNY Purchase. While at Purchase Tony worked as a student engineer/producer, recording various groups and individuals in a variety of styles. He also produced a full length CD of his own music. And it was in this world of expanding horizons that he first fell in love with the music of Bill Monroe.

After returning to the Capital District in 2005, Tony decided to pursue a career as a music educator and began studying full time to work towards this goal. He honed his skills as classical pianist, playing bass with an eclectic folk trio, and fronting a rock group on the side. In 2008 Tony responded to a ‘musician wanted’ ad placed by Scott and the rest as they say is history. Though he was originally playing guitar with the group, after Morrie was brought on Tony switched to the Mandolin and has been improving steadily over time.

Joe Gumpper decided he loved classical music when he was in the sixth grade, and thus began his violin career. Later, when he started to learn the Bach E major violin concerto in high school, he knew he would make a life with music. As a student at the Crane School of Music, Joe began to broaden his musical tastes by playing other styles of music including Jazz, American folk, and Latin American folk music.

After college Joe began to teach full time and play with local groups such as Wiley Dobbs, Iowa 80, and Red Haired Strangers as well as the odd wedding or orchestra gig. Although he has spent much of his time playing and conducting classical, blues, country, and roots music, he has fallen in love with the clean stylings and the vocal sonorities of bluegrass. When he was poached by Fairview Avenue in the beginning of 2011, he decided it was a great opportunity to immerse himself into the genre.

Currently, in addition to playing with Fairview Avenue, Joe teaches orchestra full time at Shenendehowa High School where he conducts three orchestras. He also has a private studio of string students and conducts the Empire State Youth Orchestra String Ensemble.

was born and raised in Altamont, NY on Lincoln Avenue (just down the road from Fairview Avenue) to music loving parents whose tastes gave him an appreciation for multiple genres. While Dad blasted classical and jazz every morning, Mom was singing off-key to Roberta Flack and the Beatles after school. Brig started playing the alto sax in fourth grade and sat first chair in band through his senior year.

After graduating from college with a teaching degree, he loaded up everything he could carry on his back at a dead run (including an acoustic guitar) into a 1984 VW Vanagon and moved to Salt Lake City, UT. On Sunday mornings as most of the state was attending church, Brig would head to the mountains to ski, hike, or mountain bike depending on the season. It was during these adventures that he discovered the radio program, "Bluegrass Express" hosted by the "Old Man" on 90.9 KRCL FM. Amazed by the virtuosity of the musicians, the tight vocal harmonies, and the energy of tunes, he became an instant fan. Digging out that old acoustic he had stashed away, he began to teach himself the basics of bluegrass guitar, in addition to devouring the bluegrass catalog from the traditional high, dry, and lonesome crooners, to newgrass and jamgrass.

Brig moved back to Altamont to start a family in 2008 and met Scott and Liz soon thereafter. In addition to sharing in the experience of raising two young children, they also bonded over bluegrass music. When Scott asked Brig to join the band in 2011, he went from being a fan of the band, to a member, and the rest is Fairview Avenue history.