Visual Art, Figurative & Portraiture Painting; Culinary Arts

For Brian Riggenbach, the connections between food and fine art run deep. Color, texture, composition, and balance shape his work on the canvas and in the kitchen, bringing two creative disciplines into conversation.

Educated at Florida State University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, with formative time spent in Paris and Northern Italy, Riggenbach developed a multidisciplinary practice that bridges painting and culinary craft. He later moved to Nashville to open his restaurant, The Mockingbird, which served as a living canvas for his creative perspective.

His approach invites us to consider the artistry within a meal: how its elements come together, how we experience it through our senses, and how something fleeting can leave a lasting impression.

Musical Theater / Performance Art

Hannah Dorfman and Anne Veal bring backgrounds in original musical theater, devised performance, and audience participation to Big Night.

Hannah Dorfman is a singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and performance artist, as well as co-founder and co-director of Nashville theater collective Amm Skellars. She has co-written, co-produced, and starred in the collective’s interactive comedy musicals Rat Race, Silver Platter (a Nashville Scene Critics Pick), and I Saw Goody Proctor With The Devil. The latter headlined the 2025 Kindling Fest, and Dorfman received a 2026 Metro Arts Thrive grant to further develop the feminist electro-pop reimagining of the Salem Witch Trials. Her one-woman concept album turned musical, Milk Makes My Body Sick (But My Body Needs It), premiered to sold-out audiences at the 2026 Kindling Arts Festival. Dorfman is also a graduate of ABC’s Periscope Artist Entrepreneur Program.

Anne Veal is a creator, performer, and educator specializing in devised and spontaneous theatre. Her recent projects include directing Dorfman’s one-woman musical and creating Toy Box #1, a live-devised performance that draws audiences into the creative experience, supported by a 2026 Thrive grant. She also directed I Saw Goody Proctor With The Devil, was a performer-creator of the improvised comedy-dance piece The Riddle, and developed and directed The Murderer Did It!, presented at the New York City Comedy Festival and Brooklyn Art Haus. Veal has performed internationally with Rapid Fire Theatre, Det Andre Teatret, and the Vancouver International Improv Festival, and her original work has reached stages across the United States and Europe.

Jazz Hip Hop and Spoken Word

Rashad thaPoet and AyyWillé bring jazz hip hop and spoken word to the Big Night artist lineup, making space for rhythm, language, and storytelling.

Rashad Rayford is an award-winning speaker, actor, and poet whose work has been featured by TEDx, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. A MOTH Story Hour GRANDslam champion, he is known for high-energy presentations that blend storytelling, spoken word, and actionable business insights.

His practice reflects the power of a well-told story to hold a room and create a shared experience—an exciting addition to an evening that invites guests to engage with art in many forms.