Originally from northeastern New Jersey, Robert Wadsworth has lived in central Virginia since 1984. His musical training began at age 7, and he has received formal instruction in piano, cello, guitar, and pipe organ. He has maintained a life-long avocational interest in music, and has been playing acoustic guitar since his late teens. Bob began playing the hammered dulcimer in 1998, and it quickly became his instrument of choice. After acquiring playing speed and fluidity by participating in old-time fiddle-tune jam sessions, he began developing an eclectic and ever-expanding repertoire of solo arrangements. His playing style is varied, harmonically rich, musical, and sometimes evocative of other instruments. As a hammered dulcimer teacher, he can offer his students knowledge of learning processes borrowed from his education and "day job" as a psychologist.  

In addition to hammered dulcimer, Bob plays acoustic 6-string and 12-string guitars and bowed psaltery on recordings and in public performances, and accompanies and harmonizes with his wife Mary Ellen (a soprano in the Richmond Symphony Chorus) on covers of contemporary folk-style songs.