Jacqueline Woodson is the recipient of a 2020 MacArthur Fellowship, the 2020 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2018 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, and the 2018 Children’s Literature Legacy Award. She was the 2018–2019 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and in 2015, she was named the Young People’s Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation. She received the 2014 National Book Award for her New York Times bestselling memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, which also received the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor, the NAACP Image Award, and a Sibert Honor. She also wrote the adult books Red at the Bone, a New York Times bestseller, and Another Brooklyn, a 2016 National Book Award finalist. 

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Juliette Jones (Composer, Arranger, Violinist) is a multi-genre live and studio recording violinist, BMI composer, and founder of Rootstock Republic—a broad-based string production company that specializes in consulting, contracting, music preparation, an live performances; co-led by Jarvis Benson.

Under the company, Jones has scored, recorded, and contracted for a number of live, televised, and multimedia events including the People’s Choice Awards, the New York Festival, NBC’s Grammy Award^®–nominated and Emmy Award^®–winning broadcast of Jesus Christ Superstar live and the Academy Award^®–nominated film, Mudbound.

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Monique Brooks Roberts is a violinist hailing from Louisville, KY. She recently relocated to Denver from the New Jersey/Philadelphia area. While she is successfully carving out a niche in her own right, her music echoes influences of Sade, Robert Glasper, and Air.

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Jarvis L. Benson comes from a family musicians and covers a lot of musical ground in the artistic world. The classically trained New York-based musician has had the opportunity to collaborate with many major artists—most notably Solange, Chris Martin, Nate Smith, Shawn Mendes, and many others. He was part of the Emmy Award^®–winning production of Jesus Christ Superstar—Live featuring John Legend, and also part of the Grammy Award^®–winning album GUMBO Unplugged by PJ Morton. He currently serves as Executive Managing Director and principal violist for Rootstock Republic (a string production company serving New York City & Los Angeles), serves an Artist Manager for MKI Artists, and is a member of the touring orchestra for the Les Misérables National Tour.

Malcolm Parson is best known for his work as a member of both Turtle Island Quartet and Carolina Chocolate Drops. As a composer, he had his first break in 2019 by collaborating with Brian McOmber on the soundtrack to Little Woods (dir. Nia Dacosta). Since then, his film work has continued with projects such as Good Ol Girl, Ballet After Dark, LA28, Laying Flowers: Setting Fires, The Sentence of Michael Thompson, If I Go Will They Miss Me, and currently Love Lizzo. As a cellist, he has performed on several featured films including Palmer, A Man Named Scott, Kingdom of Silence, Mudbound, and Blow The Man Down. Recently he was the string arranger for Spencer Zahn and Dawn Richard's "Pigments" and "Pele" by Luedji Luna feat. Mereba.

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Christopher Johnson began his musical studies with Project S.T.E.P. in Boston at the of seven. He obtained his first degree at New England Conservatory with Don Palma and his master’s degree at Manhattan School of Music with Tim Cobb. He currently lives in Brooklyn, NY where he is a freelance bassist. He’s a member of Rootstock Republic, JP Jofre Quintet, Sphinx Virtuosi, The ReCollective Orchestra, Black Rock Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Wordless Music Orchestra, and Verbier Festival Orchestra just to name a few. In 2013, he won first place at the International Society of Bassist orchestral excerpt completion. In 2018, he premiered the musical Jagged Little Pill in Boston at the A.R.T. In 2019, he played on the soundtrack of The Lion King with Hans Zimmer at Sony Studios in LA. In 2021, he was a finalist in the Sphinx Orchestra Partners Association’s Orchestral Competition. In 2022, Johnson performed with Jon Batiste, Bel Biv DeVoe, Chaka Khan, Earth, Wind, & Fire, and the Roots.

Cassie Watson Francillon is known on the New Orleans scene as a visionary harpist, avant-garde contributor, and powerfully expressive artist; breaking conventions to construct “sacred sonic architecture” through her concert grand harp. Influenced by Hip Hop, jazz, psychedelia, and Black American spirituals, she crafts a fresh, modern-day revival through radically fresh collaborations and sonic soundscapes even when on her own. Her sound reflects the journey, joy, and lamentations of modern Black American transcendence and investigations of her Haitian lineage.

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Olivia Tilley is a harp soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral harpist. She fell in love with the sound of the harp as a toddler while living in Asunción, Paraguay and began her formal training at the age of seven with Elizabeth Blakeslee. Tilley currently studies with Adriana Horne, the Principal Harpist for the National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) in Washington, D.C. Tilley is a Symphonic Harpist for the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestras, a NSO Youth Fellow, and a Washington Musical Pathways Initiative Fellow. She has participated in multiple music competitions, placing as first alternate in the American Youth Symphonic Orchestra Soloist Competition in 2021, third in the 2021-2022 Marine Band Concerto Competition, being a finalist in the 2023 U.S. Army Orchestra Young Artist Competition and receiving an honorable mention in the 2022 U.S. Army Orchestra Young Artist Competition. Tilley attended Interlochen Arts Camp in 2022 and served as principal harpist in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra, receiving the prestigious Fine Arts Award. She is also a recipient of the 2022 Fortissima National Cohort with the Colburn School. Tilley loves playing everything from Bach to Broadway, and enjoys sharing beautiful music to inspire and uplift audiences.