Paige Hernandez, hip-hop and spoken word artist

Travis Laplante, saxophone

Charles Overton, harp

Yiliang Jiang, violin

Seth Knopp, Artistic Director

Paige Hernandez is a multidisciplinary artist who is critically acclaimed as a performer, director, choreographer and playwright.  As an AEA equity actress, Paige has performed on many stages throughout the country. She has collaborated with the Lincoln Center and has been commissioned by several companies including the National New Play Network, the Smithsonian, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse and the Glimmerglass Festival. She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council as well as four Helen Hayes nominations for choreography, directing and performance.  Paige has also been named a “classroom hero” by The Huffington Post, a “Citizen Artist Fellow” with the Kennedy Center, “40 under 40” by the Washington Post and one of “Six Theatre Workers You Should Know” by American Theatre Magazine. She is elated to be the Associate Artistic Director of Everyman Theatre in her hometown of Baltimore, MD. With her company B-FLY ENTERTAINMENT, Paige continues to develop and tour original work internationally. www.paigehernandez.com

 

Travis Laplante is a saxophonist, composer, and qigong practitioner living in Brooklyn, New York and southern Vermont. Laplante leads Battle Trance, the acclaimed tenor saxophone quartet as well as Subtle Degrees, his newest project with drummer Gerald Cleaver. He is also known for his solo saxophone work and his longstanding ensemble Little Women. Laplante has recently performed and/or recorded with Trevor Dunn, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, So Percussion, Michael Formanek, Buke and Gase, Ingrid Laubrock, Darius Jones, Mat Maneri, and Matt Mitchell, among others. He has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many major international festivals throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. As a qigong student of master Robert Peng, Laplante has undergone traditional intensive training. His focus in recent years, under the tutelage of Laura Stelmok, has been on Taoist alchemical medicine and the cultivation of the heart. Laplante is passionate about the intersection of music and medicine. He and his wife are the founders of Sword Hands, a qigong and acupuncture healing practice based in Brooklyn, New York and Putney, Vermont. www.travislaplante.com

 

Charles Overton is a Boston-based harpist and performer of classical, jazz and world music. As a jazz musician he has played in festivals abroad like the Harpes au Max festival in Ancenis, while locally frequenting jazz series like Jazz at Indian Hill, and Mandorla Music’s Dot Jazz Series. As a classical musician, he appears frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with Boston-based ensembles the Walden Chamber Players, and Collage New Music, as well as at Yellow Barn and the Marlboro Music Festival. He attended the Berklee College of Music, where he was the first harpist to be a part of Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute, as well as the Pacific Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Castleton Festival. Today, Charles resides in Boston where he serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Recent engagements include an appearance at Scullers Jazz Club with his jazz ensemble: the Charles Overton Group and regular performances with the Boston Philharmonic. www.charlesovertonmusic.com

 

Coming from a non-musician family, Yiliang Jiang’s talent was recognized early and encouraged to follow his passion of violin. Jiang started studying with the illustrious violin pedagogue Prof. Fang Lei when he entered the elementary school of Shanghai Conservatory. Jiang took an active part in various performances and art exchange programs as well as featured in numerous recitals. Jiang won the silver prize of the 8th Golden Bell National Violin Competition which considered as the biggest Violin Competition in China in 2011. Jiang won the second prize of Andre Postacchini International Competition in 2013. Since then, Jiang started play with the main orchestras in China such as, China Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra. Jiang won the top prize of the Dorothy Delay Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival 2014. In 2018, Jiang won 4th Place in the 55th Premio Paganini International Violin Competition. www.yiliangjiang.net

 

Seth Knopp was a founding member of the Peabody Trio, recipient of the 1989 Naumburg Award, and has been the Artistic Director of Yellow Barn since 1998. He is also the Artistic Director of Soundings: New Music at the Nasher, a series of concerts at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, Texas. After making its Alice Tully Hall debut, the Peabody Trio performed on the most important chamber music series, nationally and internationally. They appeared at the first Biennale for contemporary music in Tel Aviv, Tempus Fugit, and commissioned and performed a significant body of new music. After thirty years, the trio played its final concert in San Francisco this past December, the city where it was formed. Seth studied with Leonard Shure at New England Conservatory, Nathan Schwartz at San Francisco Conservatory, and with Leon Fleisher. His solo and chamber music performances can be heard on the Artek, Koch, and New World Records labels. Together with Natasha Brofsky, he recorded Beethoven’s Opus 102 Cello Sonatas, and with baritone William Sharp made the premiere recording of Jörg Widmann’s song cycle Das heiße Herz in collaboration with the composer. Seth serves on the piano and chamber music faculties at the Peabody Institute. www.yellowbarn.org/artist/seth-knopp