Respected journalist and bluegrass singer/songwriter Chris Stuart wrote about Megan. It's like a bio, but more.
I like to tell this story whenever someone asks, “What’s Megan like?” Our band had a northeast tour and we needed a fiddler. I didn’t know Megan then, but had heard her play with other bands and knew she’d be great. I called her and she said yes. She lives in Nashville—a small town in middle Tennessee famous for Goo-Goo Clusters—so she flew to Boston to meet us. Almost. The weather gods got together and decided they were going to throw a major storm in her path. She was deplaned, replaned, derouted, and rerouted, and after two days ended up in Portland, Maine. The airline had lost her luggage and she had used several forms of transportation just to catch up with us. When we picked her up she only had the clothes on her back and a fiddle. I was expecting a very grumpy musician. Instead, she jumped in the van with a big smile, ready to hit the tour. The only thing she asked was if we could stop to buy clothes and toothpaste (“Quit being a prima donna,” I snapped back)—she never complained, knew all our material, and knocked it out of the park on stage. I also tell that story whenever someone asks, “What’s a professional?”
Here's a bio that looks a lot more like a bio. It has facts and figures and is fairly chronological. Probably not as interesting, but it's useful.
Megan Lynch Chowning, originally from Redding, California, is a seven time national fiddle champion, touring musician, Grammy-nominated (for her participation in the John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project) recording artist, teacher, singer, and flatfooter. She spent four years touring with legendary country music artists Pam Tillis and Lorrie Morgan, and has played with bluegrass stars Dale Ann Bradley, Roland White, Larry Cordle, Jim Hurst, Chris Jones, 3 Fox Drive, Due West, Chris Stuart, and BEML (the duo of Bill Evans and Megan). Megan has fiddled and sung on dozens of projects, and has released a series of entirely solo fiddle albums, focusing on crowdsourcing fabulous but slightly more obscure fiddle tunes. She has taught fiddle and vocals at prestigious camps such as Augusta Heritage Week, the British Columbia Bluegrass Workshop, Sore Fingers Bluegrass Week in the UK, Walker Creek Music Camp, and the California Bluegrass Association Camp, among many others. Megan has also judged the National Fiddle Championships three times, as well as many state championships throughout the country. She’s the co-director (with her husband, Adam) of the IBMA-award-winning Nashville Acoustic Camps. But sometimes she just likes to sit quietly and smell the flowers.
Here is just a giant list of things Megan has done. Bullet points of her career, if you will...
*Seven Time National Fiddle Champion
*Six Time California State Fiddle Champion
*Winner of the IBMA Momentum Award for Industry Involvement
*Grammy Nominee (2021 - for her participation in the John Hartford Fiddle Tune Project)
*Grand Masters Traditional Fiddling Champion
*One or more State Fiddle Championships from the following states - Kentucky, Georgia, Minnesota, and Colorado
*Member of the National Show Choir Champion ensemble Enterprise Starship
*Winner of multiple Vocal Jazz Festival Ensemble and Solo Championships
*Began teaching fiddle at age 14
*Performed as a feature artist at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
*Megan's students have won the following competitions - The National Fiddle Championships (including multiple winners of the Grand Champion Division), California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Montana, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Texas, Arkansas, ok you get the idea, State Championships, The Grand Master Fiddlers' Contest, The World Series of Fiddling, and a bunch more.
*Megan has taught the following bluegrass and acoustic music camps - Sorrento Bluegrass Week (now called Nimble Fingers), Augusta Heritage Bluegrass Week, California Bluegrass Association Camp, Walker Creek Music Camp, Sorefingers Bluegrass Camp (in the U.K.), 108 Mile Bluegrass Camp, Camp Bluegrass, and probably more. She's sure she has forgotten at least one or two.
*Winner of the International Bluegrass Music Association Award for Album of the Year for her participation in the Musicians Against Childhood Cancer Live Bluegrass Album
*Toured and performed with the following awesome and famous bluegrass people - Roland White (Grammy Winner), 3 Fox Drive (Koch Recording Artists, IBMA nominated), Chris Jones (IBMA Songwriter of the Year), Dale Ann Bradley (IBMA Female Vocalist of the Year), Chris Stuart (IBMA Songwriter of the Year), Larry Cordle (IBMA Song of the Year, Grammy nominated songwriter), Jim Hurst (IBMA Guitar Player of the Year), James King, Special Consensus (IBMA Award Winners)
*Toured and performed with the following fantastic and famous country artists - Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan, Mel Tillis, Connie Smith, Jean Shepard
*Featured in Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine, Fiddler Magazine, Strings Magazine, Bluegrass Unlimited, and Bluegrass Today