Bill Spade is a lifelong New Yorker and a September 11th first responder who openly shares his experience of survival, loss, and healing in the aftermath of the attacks. On September 11, 2001, Bill was on duty with Rescue Company #5 of the New York City Fire Department. He responded to the World Trade Center alongside eleven other members of his company—and was the only surviving member. In the years since, Bill has spoken candidly about life after 9/11, including navigating survivor’s guilt, raising two young sons, and the counseling and support that helped him move forward.

Bill’s commitment to remembrance and education continues to this day. He has given over two hundred tours of the World Trade Center site, is a frequent keynote speaker, and currently serves as a docent at the 9/11 Memorial Museum, where he is dedicated to ensuring that the events of September 11th are never forgotten.

Before 9/11, Bill devoted his life to public service in New York City. He attended Seton Hall University, graduating in 1981. In January 1984, he was sworn in as a New York City police officer, serving with the NYPD for nearly two years. He then fulfilled a lifelong dream by joining the New York City Fire Department. Bill worked in downtown Manhattan as a firefighter for nearly six years before transferring to the elite Rescue Company #5, based out of Staten Island, where he served for approximately ten years and responded to numerous major emergencies throughout New York City.

“…a trumpeter of abundant poise,” who “plays beautifully, with expressive control” and “brings true musicality.”
– The New York Times

Dominick Farinacci is among the most acclaimed trumpeters and educators of his generation, with a career that transcends conventional recognition in jazz. Born and raised in Cleveland, he was just 17 when Wynton Marsalis selected him for a special PBS performance. While a student in Juilliard’s inaugural jazz-studies class, he launched an international career as a recording artist and bandleader, releasing eight albums in Japan before gaining global acclaim.

At Marsalis’ request, Farinacci led Jazz at Lincoln Center’s outpost in Doha, Qatar (2012–2016). His 2016 album Short Stories, produced with Tommy LiPuma, and the Cleveland Arts Prize he received in 2022 highlight his continuing influence. Yet for Farinacci, achievement serves artistry: in 2011, he composed “A Prayer for You” in response to his mother’s cancer diagnosis, later performing it in a TED Talk at the Kennedy Center and recording it with his group TRIAD.

Farinacci’s commitment to music and humanity also informs Modern Warrior LIVE, a multidisciplinary touring project with U.S. Army veteran Jaymes Poling that blends first-person storytelling, film, and Farinacci’s musical direction to illuminate the veteran experience. General Jim Mattis called it a “necessary and worthy mission.”

As director of the Tri-C JazzFest Academy in Cleveland, Farinacci guides young artists with empathy and honesty, teaching both jazz history and the realities of the music business—always with the goal of helping musicians find fulfillment, resilience, and well-being through their art.

Jaymes Poling brings to Modern Warrior the fully immersed perspective of a three-tour combat veteran with the 82nd Airborne in Afghanistan. Confronting war memories, the loss of friends, and the isolation many veterans face after service, Jaymes discovered through narrative arts, music, and dynamic public speaking that growth can follow adversity.

Enlisting at 17, Jaymes served eight years as an infantryman, machine gunner, and squad leader with the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, spending three years in combat in Afghanistan. He has engaged military communities more than 120 times through Modern Warrior—performing in schools, universities, performing arts centers, prisons, and in a one-hour cinematic production—and has spoken with hundreds of active-duty soldiers overseas about mental health through the Troops First Foundation.

Raised in Warren, Ohio, and a finance graduate of John Carroll University, Jaymes now leads Modern Warrior’s nonprofit operations and partners with organizations to help veterans move from isolation toward healing—whether one-on-one or in a concert hall of thousands.

Emmett Murphy creates theatrical experiences that fuse storytelling, music, multimedia, and live performance. He has directed, designed, and produced entertainment, performing arts, and special events across Europe, Asia, and North America.

Recent projects include directing The Three Divas at the New Generation Festival in Florence, Italy, and Modern Warrior LIVE, which premiered in New York City and toured performing arts centers nationwide. He also directed the film adaptation of Modern Warrior LIVE, debuting at the National Veterans Film Festival, and serves as director, dramaturg, and co-librettist for the operas Lycidas and The Faultless Painter by Robert Balaguer. Murphy collaborates closely with jazz trumpeter Dominick Farinacci, presenting over 20 live-stream concerts on the Songbook Watch Party platform, providing global performance opportunities during the pandemic.

Murphy’s career spans Cirque du Soleil® (The Beatles LOVE), Clint Holmes: Between the Lines, and Sin City Comedy in Las Vegas, as well as 18 original productions for major cruise lines and the theatrical production Illusions at Joyland Theme Park in Shanghai. He is the founder of showHive, a creative collaborative developing large-scale entertainment projects.

A performer in music, theater, and dance, Murphy applies his experience to drive narrative innovation. He is an alumnus of Directors Lab West and has studied directing and dramaturgy at Primary Stages Einhorn School of Performing Arts and Roundabout Theater Lab. A member of SDC, AEA, AGVA, and APAP, Murphy divides his time between New York and Los Angeles and is an avid collector of modern and contemporary art.iption

Garrett Caine has been producing innovative lighting design, production entertainment and cutting-edge AV design projects for over 30 years, with over 100 major projects worldwide to his credit. His lighting design accomplishments include Illusions at Joyland Grand Theater Shanghai, China, RED at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, 10 Commandments at the Kodak Theater, the original musical Hats! at Harrah’s Las Vegas, Under the Sea Tokyo Disney, C’est Magique for Disney Entertainment, Imagine at the Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Spellbound at Harrah’s Las Vegas and Eclipse at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe. His numerous cruise ship lighting credits can be seen on Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Oceania Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Disney Cruise Line.