staff & volunteers
BRIAR
tradition bearer, vocalist, teacher
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 Banto People....
JOE SEAMONS
co-founder & facilitator
Joe (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 GREEN
curriculum &
program development
Liana 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 GOLDEN
digital & guitar instruction
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...
BEN HUNTER
co-founder & facilitator
Ben is an internationally touring multi-instrumentalist and composer, local entrepreneur, and community activist. 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...
VALERIE DIAZ LEROY
communications
& partnership manager
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 AUSTIN
facilitator
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...
SIEGLINDE
volunteer
Hazel photo
KATELYN KIMMONS
volunteer
