About:

Concert with Ysaye Barnwell and Paul Reisler & Three Good Reasons featuring Lea Morris and Marshall Keys. The event will be held at the Theatre House at beautiful Castleton Farms, an acoustically perfect intimate venue built by Maestro Lorin Maazel.

Dr. Ysaye M. Barnwell toured with the internationally acclaimed singing group Sweet Honey in the Rock for more than 30 years. She has performed everywhere from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to concert halls in Africa, Europe and New Guinea. Throughout the years, she has spent much of her time off stage working as an actress, composer and arranger, author, master teacher and choral leader in the African American cultural performance tradition. She has presented her popular songwriting and Building a Vocal Community workshops throughout 3 continents. Her work in the field is a significant source of inspiration for both singers and non-singers, a model of pedagogy for educators, and cultural activists and historians.

Paul Reisler is the founder and artistic director of Kid Pan Alley, and co-founder of Trapezoid, as well as his current band, Three Good Reasons. Paul has written more songs than the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Stephen Foster combined—somewhere north of 3,500 compositions thanks, in no small part, to his 60,000 short Kid Pan Alley collaborators as well as a handful of Grammy winning co-writers. Major works include Aesop’s Fables for Orchestra and Narrator, as well as the script and songs for a new musical entitled Bouncin’. He’s been teaching songwriting for the last 30 years at workshops including Rocky Mountain Song School, Utah Song School, Berklee College of Music, University of the Pacific, Swannanoa Gathering, and Hollyhock.

Three Good Reasons is Paul’s new band featuring singer-songwriter Lea Morris and sax virtuoso Marshall Keys. They’ll be joined in the concert by special guests including Ysaye Barnwell.

Thanks to the Castleton Festival and Rappahannock Association for Arts in the Community for their support of this event.