Performer Biographies

Chad Lawson

Chad Lawson is prolific in his efforts to redefine the boundaries of classical music from the past and into modern-day. With 650 million streams globally, one million monthly Spotify listeners, and now a number one creation with breathe (Decca Records/Universal Music Group) made in collaboration with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Abbey Road’s recording studios, Lawson’s creative works have achieved monumental success.

Lawson has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, NPR’s Morning Edition, and Germany’s NDR Kultur. In 2021, Lawson was honored with an iHeart Radio Podcast Awards nomination for his podcast Calm it Down, which has surpassed 3 million episode downloads.

Lawson is also a certified breath-work practitioner aiming to combine classical music with a meditative mindset, making for a unique listening experience that is both calming and creative.

Seth Parker Woods

Hailed by the Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” who possesses “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” Grammy Award–nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods has established his reputation as a versatile artist and innovator across multiple genres. Woods’s projects delve deep into the cultural fabric, reimagining traditional works and commissioning new ones to propel classical music into the future, inspiring the New York Times to write, “Woods is an artist rooted in classical music, but whose cello is a vehicle that takes him, and his concertgoers, on wideranging journeys.” He is a recipient of the 2022 Chamber Music America

Michael Jaffee Visionary Award.

Woods’s debut solo album, asinglewordisnotenough (Confront Recordings-London), has garnered great acclaim since its release in November 2016 and has been profiled in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, 5against4, I Care If You Listen, Musical America, Seattle Times, and Strings magazine, among others.

Judy Kang

The New York Times hailed, “Judy Kang, a Canadian violinist and most likely the only musician to have worked with both Pierre Boulez and Lady Gaga, was featured in Brahms’s Violin Concerto. Ms. Kang, who drew whoops from the audience before playing a single note, offered a lean, focused sound, pinpoint intonation, and expressively molded phrasing. Every line seemed to mean something personal in what amounted to an amorous serenade.”

Kang is not your quintessential artist. She has established herself internationally as a solo violinist and chamber musician in the classical world as well as a featured guest artist and prominent collaborator in the world of pop, indie, jazz, and hip hop. A multi-faceted artist evolving outside of her formal classical training, Kang has set herself apart from others through her work as a singer/songwriter, producer, composer, and arranger.

Kang continues to defy and break the constraints of boundaries improvising, jamming, co-writing, producing, and performing with bands and artists from Alaskan prog rock band Portugal. The Man to such powerhouses as Lady Gaga.

Schwartz Artist-in-Residence Events

Cellist Seth Parker Woods has established a reputation as a versatile artist and a fierce advocate for contemporary arts. As part of the Schwartz Artistin-Residence Program, Woods and Emory faculty composer Katherine Young are developing a new work for solo cello during his time in Atlanta. The Atlanta and Emory communities are invited to attend the following free events as part of this residency:

Monday, March 27 | Performing Arts Studio

1:00 p.m. Open Rehearsal with Seth Parker Woods and Katherine Young

4:00 p.m. Master Class—Collaboration and New Practices

More information is available at schwartz.emory.edu/calendar.

Schwartz Center Staff

Rachael Brightwell, Managing Director

Terry Adams, Box Office Coordinator

Lisa Baron, Communications Specialist

Kathryn Colegrove, Associate Director for Programming and Outreach

Lewis Fuller, Associate Director for Production and Operations

Jennifer Kimball, Assistant Stage Manager

Jeffrey Lenhard, Operations Assistant

Alan Strange, Box Office Manager

Nicholas Surbey, Senior Graphic Designer

Alexandria Sweatt, Marketing Assistant

Mark Teague, Stage Manager

Nina Vestal, House Manager

Matt Williamson, Multimedia Specialist

The Schwartz Center for Performing Arts offers a variety of jazz, classical, and crossover music each season. Visit schwartz.emory.edu for more information.

Upcoming Candler Concert Series Event schwartz.emory.edu

Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain, with Rakesh Chaurasia

Thursday, April 20 | 8 p.m.

Beginning with the most creative exponent of the banjo in our time, Béla Fleck, this unique quartet also features the greatest living player of the tabla, the legendary drummer Zakir Hussain; acclaimed virtuoso of the classical and bluegrass bass, Edgar Meyer; and the great Indian flutist Rakesh Chaurasia. With their decades of artistry and the magic of improvisation, the result is a powerful four-way musical dialogue to close out the Schwartz Center’s 20th Anniversary season.