Travis Laplante, saxophone (Putney, VT), is a saxophonist, composer, improviser, and qigong practitioner. He leads the acclaimed tenor saxophone quartet Battle Trance, as well as Subtle Degrees, his duo with drummer Gerald Cleaver. Recently, Travis has composed long-form works for new music ensembles the JACK Quartet and Yarn/Wire while performing alongside them. Travis is also known for his raw solo saxophone concerts and being a member of the avant-garde quartet Little Women. He has performed and/or recorded with International Contemporary Ensemble, Caroline Shaw, Ches Smith, Peter Evans, So Percussion, Ingrid Laubrock, Mary Halvorson, Michael Formanek, Buke and Gase, Darius Jones, Mat Maneri, and Matt Mitchell, among others. Travis has toured his music extensively and has appeared at many major international festivals such as The Moers Festival (Germany), Jazz Jantar (Poland), Saalfelden (Austria), Jazz em Agosto (Portugal), Earshot (Seattle), Hopscotch (North Carolina), and the NYC Winter JazzFest. As a composer, Travis has been commissioned by the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), the JACK Quartet, Roulette Intermedium, Yarn/Wire, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the MATA festival, and The Jerome Foundation. He and his wife are the founders of Sword Hands, a qigong and acupuncture healing practice based in Putney, Vermont. Laplante is currently pursuing a Ph.D in music composition at Princeton University. Previous Yellow Barn musician (since 2016)