Based in New York City, Kristi Shade began playing the harp at the age of two and has since become one of the preeminent emerging harpists in the industry.  A diverse performer, Kristi performs in a variety of musical settings including classical, jazz, pop, Broadway and contemporary.

Kristi is the Principal Harpist with The Chamber Orchestra of New York, with which she has recorded five albums on the Naxos record label. She is a member of the flute-viola-harp trio, Hat Trick, and the harp duo, Duo Scorpio. Duo Scorpio released their debut album, Scorpion Tales, in the fall of 2012 on the American Modern Recordings label and were featured performers at the 50th Anniversary American Harp Society Conference in New York City.  Their album, Scorpion Tales, was included on the 2012 GRAMMY nomination ballot in three separate categories. Duo Scorpio were featured performers at The World Harp Congress in Sydney, Australia in July 2014, where they premiered their commissions by composers Nico Muhly and Andy Akiho. Duo Scorpio also performed at the World Harp Congress in Hong Kong in July 2017, where they premiered their commission by composer Paul Patterson. Duo Scorpio's second album, Two Bridges, was released in the spring of 2017 and consists entirely of pieces commissioned by the duo. Hat Trick is based in the New York City area, with concerts scheduled locally and across the country. The trio recorded a debut CD in December 2014 with multi-Grammy-winning classical producer David Frost. The album, The Garden of Joys and Sorrows, was released in 2016 to high acclaim. The trio recorded their second album in Bremen, Germany in November 2023. The album was released in July, 2024, and includes two commissions by composers Daniel Dorff and Jessica Meyer.

Kristi is a frequent performer with The Knights, On Site Opera, Talea Ensemble and American Modern Ensemble. She has been a guest artist with The Baltimore Symphony, The New Jersey Symphony, The Miami Symphony, The Florida Philharmonic, The Albany Symphony Orchestra, The Columbus Symphony Orchestra, The Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra and The Brooklyn Repertory Orchestra. Kristi was the Principal Harpist for the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, with which she toured Mexico and North America, recorded an album for Sony Classical and appeared live on television for the Mexican Bicentennial Celebration in September 2010.

Passionate about new music, Kristi has premiered several new pieces for solo harp. Most notably, she premiered and recorded the harp concerto, Ángel Mestizo, which was dedicated to her by composer Juan Pablo Contreras. The piece was premiered in Mexico City in 2014 and Kristi performed it again in 2015 in the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, Mexico.

April Clayton is in high demand as a soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, orchestral player and pedagogue. She performs regularly around the world. For 22 years, she was Professor of Flute at Brigham Young University, where she received tenure at age 31. Locally, she has also been Director of Flute Studies at both Utah Valley University and Snow College, Flute and Chamber Music Faculty at Westminster University, Artistic Director and Woodwind Studies Chair at the Gifted Music School pre-college in Salt Lake City, and President of the music nonprofit, Da Capo Alliance. In 2010, she was the recipient of a coveted Brigham Young University Young Faculty Award, becoming only the second music faculty member to receive this honor in its decades-long history. Ms. Clayton is a Burkart Flutes Artist.

Dr. Clayton has been Flute Faculty at the Orpheus Academy in Vienna and the Varna International Music Academy for the past three years. She was Artist in Residence for the XIX Seminários Internacionais de Musica at the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil, at the Holder’s Season Festival in Barbados, for the Wells Cathedral Concert Series, and at the Aberystwyth Music Festival in Wales. For seven years, she was Faculty and Director of Chamber Music for the European American Musical Alliance. As such, Ms. Clayton worked in Paris alongside members of the faculty of Juilliard, the Paris Conservatory and Ecole Normale de Musique, and several other elite schools. During the Fall Semester of 2007, while on sabbatical, she was a Guest Artist Instructor at the Conservatoire MJC du Vesinet and the Centre de Musique F. Hasselmann in France. She has additionally performed in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Zurich, Riva del Garda, Granada, Leipzig, Moscow, Vancouver, New York City, and throughout South Korea, Mexico, and the United States.

Ms. Clayton is flutist with the Aspen Winds, a leading woodwind quintet in the Intermountain West. She is also flutist with the New York-based flute, viola, harp trio Hat Trick. This group received a nod at the 2017 Grammy Awards as their producer, David Frost, was awarded Best Classical Producer of the Year. Mr. Frost was given this award based on his production of nine CDs, one of which was Hat Trick's debut CD, Submerged. Dr. Clayton was flutist with the Orpheus Wind Quintet for twenty-two years. She has performed and toured as guest flutist with the New York Woodwind Quintet. Ms. Clayton was formerly Principal Flute and concerto soloist with the New York Lyric Orchestra, and has played as Principal Flute with Utah Chamber Artists, Utah Metropolitan Ballet, The Jupiter Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, at the Sarasota Music Festival, and many others.

Ms. Clayton was a National Merit Scholar at Oberlin College and Conservatory, studying flute performance and mathematics. She subsequently graduated with her B.M. (summa cum laude) and M.M. degrees from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. At The Juilliard School, she was a Starr Doctoral Fellow and the youngest student to have been admitted to the D.M.A. program. She is a member of American Mensa.