Patty Griffin is among the most consequential singer-songwriters of her generation, a quintessentially American artist whose wide-ranging canon incisively explores the intimate moments and universal emotions that bind us together. Over the course of two decades, the GRAMMY® Award winner – and seven-time nominee – has crafted nine classic studio albums and two live collections, a remarkable body of work in progress that prompted the New York Times to hail her for “[writing] cameo-carved songs that create complete emotional portraits of specific people…(her) songs have independent lives that continue in your head when the music ends.”

The Austin, TX-based singer and songwriter made an immediate impact with her 1996 debut, Living With Ghosts, and its 1998 follow-up, Flaming Red – both now considered seminal works of modern folk and Americana. Since then, Griffin’s diverse body of work spans such classic LPs as 2002’s GRAMMY Award-nominated 1000 Kisses – later ranked #15 on Paste’s“The 50 Best Albums of the Decade (2000-2009),” — to 2007’s Children Running Through, honored by the Americana Music Association with two Americana Honors & Awards including “Artist of the Year” and “Album of the Year.” To date, Patty has received seven total nominations from the Americana Music Association, affirming her as one of the far-reaching genre’s leading proponents. 2011’s Downtown Church – which blends traditional gospel favorites with Patty’s own spiritually questioning material – debuted at #1 on both Billboard’s “Folk Albums” and “Christian Albums” charts before winning 2011’s “Best Traditional Gospel Album” GRAMMY Award, Patty’s first solo GRAMMY triumph among seven total career nominations. Patty’s most recent LP, 2015’s Servant Of Love, marked the first release on her own PGM Recordings label via Thirty Tigers. Applauded by The Guardian as “bravely experimental,” the collection saw Griffin earn still another GRAMMY Award nomination, this time in the “Best Folk Album” category.

Widely regarded among the best pure songwriters of this or any other era, Patty has had her work performed by a truly epic assortment of her fellow artists, among them Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Solomon Burke, The Dixie Chicks, Kelly Clarkson & Jeff Beck, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Melissa Etheridge and Susan Boyle, to name but a few.

Essex-born John Smith has built a reputation as one of the UK’s finest guitarists and songwriters. Raised by the Devon seaside and making his bones in the bars and clubs of Liverpool, John has released multiple acclaimed albums, garnering millions of Spotify streams. He has played to audiences all over the world in living rooms, festival tents and sold-out concert halls. He is a genuine folksinger, an inquisitive truth-seeker, devoted song interpreter and enchanting writer.

Steeped in the lineage of British folk, taking his cue from Richard Thompson and John Martyn, John has evolved a transatlantic blend of fingerstyle and slide guitar techniques. His intimate takes on love, loss and the journey we make, combined with his innovative guitar work, have won him a loyal following. A contributor and collaborator, John quickly and effortlessly earns the esteem of his comrades and heroes. He has opened for folk greats including John Martyn, Davy Graham and John Renbourn, who called John Smith “the future of folk music.” On the contemporary side, he has also opened for Iron and Wine, Tinariwen and Ben Howard.

Since this appearance, John has put out new records, including The Living Kind, his masterpiece in American atmospherics: a true musician’s record, produced by Joe Henry, the man responsible for some of the subtlest Americana of recent times.

Jordan Kassalow is an eye doctor, social entrepreneur, author and the founder of VisionSpring. He is also the co-founder of EYElliance and a partner at Drs. Farkas, Kassalow, Resnick, & Associates. Jordan founded the Global Health Policy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations and co-founded Scojo New York. Prior to his position at the Council, he served as Director of the River Blindness Division at Helen Keller International. Jordan is a fellow of Draper Richards Kaplan, Skoll, Ashoka, and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He was named one of Schwab Foundation’s 2012 Social Entrepreneurs, was the inaugural winner of the John P. McNulty Prize, and was recognized in Forbes Impact 30.

VisionSpring has been internationally recognized by the Skoll Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and the World Bank; is a three-time winner of Fast-Company’s Social Capitalist Award; and a winner of Duke University’s Enterprising Social Innovation Award. Additionally, Jordan co-authored Dare to Matter: Your Path to Making a Difference Now.

Jordan holds an optometry doctorate from the New England College of Optometry (NECO), received an honorary humane letters doctorate from NECO in 2016, and has a fellowship in preventive ophthalmology and master‘s in public health from Johns Hopkins.