Composer and banjo player Paul Elwood has taught in a variety of settings including preschool, elementary schools, high schools, and universities. He has written music in for chamber ensembles, orchestras, electronics, alongside children's songs and eclectic pop tunes. The 1986 Kansas State Bluegrass Banjo Champion, Elwood has collaborated as a composer, bluegrass player and free-improviser with diverse players including Famoudou Don Moyé (percussionist with the Art Ensemble of Chicago), the late songwriting/bluegrass legend John Hartford, composer Christian Wolff, guitarist Jean-Marc Montera, Native American musician Robert Mirabal, cellist Hank Roberts, bassist Robert Black, Electric Cowboy Cacophony (Edinburgh and Marseille - Karin Schistek, piano; Michael Edwards, computer and sax; Jean-Marc Montera, guitar), guitarist Eugene Chadbourne, percussionist Daniel Moore, saxophonist Raphael Imbert (France), Zeitgeist, the Callithumpian Consort, pianist Stephen Drury, pipa players Min Xiao-Fen and Gao Hong, and Andrew Bishop’s Hank Williams Project. Elwood has been featured as a solo performer on a live broadcast on MTV Europe, on France Musique, WFMU, on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and at the American Embassy in London. He has performed at festivals worldwide including the Cold Alternativa Festival of New American Music in Moscow, the AmBul Festival of New American and Bulgarian Music in Sophia, the Nuit d'hiver Festival in France, the Voltage Festival in Australia, the International Viola Congress in South Africa, and the Darmstadt Ferienkürsen in Germany, among others.