staff & volunteers
The Rhapsody Project is led collaboratively by the leads highlighted below, remaining accountable to one another in a manner that reflects the values of our organization. Rather than establishing a sole “director,” we put trust in each leader to make decisions within their purview, and meet weekly to consult with this team to make major decisions or gather input and strategize about any challenging elements of our work.
Briar
board member & vocal coach
Briar Sings. Raised in Chimacum, Washington, her forebears hail from Ireland and Germanic Europe. She is the descendant of African slaves brought to America, out of Nigeria and from the Southern Bantu People....
Joe
facilitation lead
co-founder
Joe Seamons (he/him) is a musician and teacher who co-founded tRp with Ben Hunter in 2013. Through exploring his heritage of local PNW folk music, as well as the the genre's history of prejudice, Joe's work as a songster and teacher continues to be fused with his commitment to agitate for social justice...
Liana
curriculum development lead
Liana Green is a mixed-black, queer musician and educator who has forged her own path through the music world. Raised in suburbia just north of Seattle, she first picked up the trumpet as a member of the 5th-grade band, and thus began her journey...
Justin
digital programs & Richmond, VA chapter lead
Justin Golden is the founder of the Richmond, VA chapter of The Rhapsody Project. His origins are deeply vested in the blues. With roots in the Mississippi Delta, Chicago, and the Piedmont of Virginia, he has always felt most connected to the blues...
Lady A
vocal coach & board chair
Lady A is a touring musician, producer, songwriter and
longtime volunteer with tRp students. In addition to her work with tRp vocal students, she is collaborating with the curriculum team to craft Blues in the Schools programs that will serve to demonstrate and expand the vibrancy of blues music in the Pacific Northwest. Learn more about her on her website.
Val
communications
& partnerships lead
Valerie has spent the past 20 years in the educational field as a music teacher, coach, clinician, and curriculum specialist. She exudes a passion for exploring the origins of the banjo, and uses this body of work to frame her message to educators on how to weave significant elements of history and culture into their teaching.
Jimmy
yiddish program director
Jimmy Austin is a working trombonist and educator from Pullman, WA, currently living in Seattle. Jimmy inherited his name and his first trombone from his paternal grandfather, who performed traditional jazz with a band of professors at Southern Illinois University...
Ben
co-founder
Benjamin Hunter is an internationally touring multi-instrumentalist and composer, local entrepreneur, and the Artistic Director of NW Folklife. In 2011, he founded Community Arts Create, a small, arts and community development organization that uses creativity as a stimulus for inter-generational, inter-cultural social engagement...
Lillian Werbin
board member
Lillian Werbin is Co-Owner and President of Elderly Instruments, a fretted and stringed musical instrument retailer and musician haven, located in Lansing, Michigan. Lillian is passionate about strengthening their community and uses communication and music to bridge social gaps...
John Oliver III
board member
John Oliver III, is a Seattle native, accomplished songwriter, arranger, producer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist with 30+ years of drumming and keyboarding experience, with a strong gospel music based inheritance handed down by previous generations.
See and hear some of his multi-genre releases at johnoliverthethird.com
or hear snippets at https://johnoliverthethird.hearnow.com/.
Hazel photo
Sieglinde
volunteer
Katelyn
volunteer
