Nashville, Tennessee-based singer songwriter Robby Hecht emerged as the winner of the 2010 Telluride Troubadour Competition yesterday afternoon and will perform on the main stage during the 37th Annual Telluride Bluegrass Festival tonight. His 15-minute set will be sandwiched in between performances by Yonder Mountain String Band and Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer. The roots-oriented music festival, which takes place amid Colorado’s rugged San Juan Mountains and coincides with the Summer Solstice, continues through Sunday.

Robby Hecht

Hecht, who also received a custom guitar and a cash prize, was recognized on the basis of the quality of his songs’ composition, vocal delivery and overall performance. A soulful singer and talented finger-style guitarist, Hecht previously placed second in the Telluride Troubadour Competition in 2006 and was a winner in the 2008 Grassy Hilly Kerrville New Folk Competition, the 2007 Wildflower Music and Arts Festival Songwriter Competition, and the 2006 Great Waters and Riverbluff Music Festival Songwriter Competitions.

In addition to Hecht, top finalists at Telluride this year were (in order) Caleb Hawley, Chris O’Brien, Margo Valiante, Nora Jane Strothers and Mai Bloomfield.

Previous winners of the Telluride Troubadour Competition, which has been held in conjunction with the festival since 1991, include Larry Good (1991), Cosy Sheridan (1992), Dan Sheridan (1993), Catie Curtis (1994), LJ Booth (1995), Michael Lille (1996), Jonathan Kingham (1997), Eugene Ruffolo (1998), Libby Kirkpatrick (1999), Mary Coppin (2000), Kris Delmhorst (2001), Deb Talan (2002), Rachel Davis (2003), Brian Joseph (2004), Keith Greeninger (2005), Nels Andrews (2006), Gregory Alan Isakov (2007), Nathan Moore (2008), and Mitch Barrett (2009).