PEM Prize Weekend Musicians

PEM is excited to bring the following musicians to Salem for PEM Prize Weekend events on May 21 and 22.

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Lily Antonini
Lily Marie Antonini is a contemporary and jazz musician currently attending Berklee College Of Music. She is a performer, arranger, producer, songwriter, composer and lyricist. Lily has several album concepts that she is currently working on, which will include original songs and arrangements. These bodies of work are meant to connect her to her listeners and hopefully help them to bond closer to God, to not feel alone and allow the music to heal, or just to optimistically dance! Lily believes that music can hypnotize people to see the reality of life and to help the world become a better place. Her music styles are pop, disco, dance, jazz, 80's contemporary, and more..Lily has been singing at Catholic Churches and famous venues around Arizona, where she was born and raised, and in the Boston area. Some of these include the Herberger Theatre, The Nash and The Berklee Performance Center.

David Bowdre
With over thirty years of experience, David Bowdre took as many opportunities as possible to collaborate and learn from other artists in Boston. Over the years, he has performed as a bucket drummer at corporate functions, fairs, festivals and in the famous Faneuil Hall. One of David’s goals is to share with his children the lesson: if you can make your work your passion in life, you will never work another day in your life. The advice that David would give someone who wants to become a bucket drummer would be: “Make sure your heart is in it.”

Myles Bullen
Myles Bullen (he/they) (Absentee Shawnee) is a self-described "migratory, songbird, rap seamstress, art poet" hailing from Portland, Maine. Their music is influenced by indie rock bands, underrated rappers, spoken word poets, and soft, folk melodies. Bullen has toured the U.S. and parts of Europe performing at music venues, colleges, recovery centers, prisons, festivals, coffee shops, and opera houses. They have released several EPs, and multiple albums, including their latest, Mourning Travels (Fake Four Inc. February 2022) Myles’ song “Iamnotforeveryone” is currently at 500,000 streams on Spotify.

Ben Cosgrove
Ben Cosgrove is a traveling composer-performer whose music explores themes of landscape, place, and environment. He has performed in every U.S. state except Delaware and Hawaii, collaborated with artists ranging from Palaver Strings to Ghost of Paul Revere, and held artist residencies and fellowships with institutions including the National Park Service, the National Forest Service, Harvard University, Middlebury College, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. His fourth studio album, The Trouble With Wilderness, has been called "beautiful and fascinating" (The Maine Edge), "deeply impressive" (Independent Clauses) and "immediately evocative and fully arresting... brim[ming] with technical mastery and emotional capital" (Seven Days). More about Ben and his work is at www.bencosgrove.com.

Emperor Norton’s Stationary Marching Band
Described as raunchy circus roots with polished precision performances, Emperor’s Norton’s Stationary Marching Band is a joyful cacophony of Balkan, Klezmer and funk, with a tasteful thrash of metal thrown in for good measure. No matter the occasion, ENSMB has got the brass to get you up and dancing. It has been said their music is shrouded in mystery and wicked intrigue. And there’s one thing we know for sure: Dance! Party! Vibes! Horns will wail. Shoulders will shimmy. Faces will melt.

Mar Fayos
Originally from Barcelona, Spain, Mar Fayos is a jazz vocalist with influences of Latin, pop, Mediterranean, and soul music. She has performed with accomplished artists such as Brazilian composer Toninho Horta, four-time Grammy winner bassist Oscar Stagnaro, Mexican composer Armando Manzanero, and jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, as well as singing at the Newport Folk Festival. The multi-awarded vocalist, composer, producer of live music events, educator, and music activist graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music in 2018 and from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute graduate program in 2021. She recently released her debut album of original compositions, Mi Propia Religión, receiving high reviews from the specialized international press. Mar Fayos currently works in music higher education teaching at Berklee College, the Bunker Hill Community College, and Escola Taller de Músics, and performs actively both in Europe and the United States.

HobArt Goulart
HobArt Goulart is a singer/songwriter and comedian originally born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His songs and comedy performances deal with his experiences living as an udocumented immigrant in the United States for eight years. Now a U.S. citizen, his work embodies traits that all hard-working immigrants bring to this country: resilience, cleverness and a go-getter attitude. HobArt's music encompasses several styles from Bossa Nova and samba to Pop and R&B and pays homage to all immigrants and refugees anywhere in the world.

Andres Guerra
Venezuelan composer, arranger and not-so-classical guitarist Andres Guerra is a Boston-based concert artist who aims to break down the stigmas of classical music and bring his multi-faceted musical and artistic influences forth to shed a new light on the classical guitar. He has played in concert and collaborated with a wide variety of artists, including Grammy-winning Aida Cuevas, Berta Rojas, Paquito d’ Rivera and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.

Reynaliz Herrera
Founded and directed by Reynaliz Herrera, IDEAS, NOT THEORIES is a theatrical percussion company for unconventional instruments that offers several programs featuring Reynaliz’s original music for bicycles and other instruments. For PEM Prize Weekend, she will perform her programs/works: “Ideas, Not Theories- Bicycle Orchestra” (Saturday) and “Ideas, Not Theories- Bicycle Beats” (Sunday). IDEAS, NOT THEORIES, has been performing regularly since 2012 in the U.S (Massachusetts, NYC, Maine, Philadelphia, CT, N.H, New Mexico), Mexico and Canada at international festivals, museums, and theaters, and has received renowned grants to create and present work.

Jamaica Plain Saxophone Quartet
Praised for their "unrivaled breadth of programming" (Boston Musical Intelligencer), the Jamaica Plain Saxophone Quartet creates diverse concert experiences full of energy and variety. Through a focus on the works of our time, JPSQ aims to leave their audiences with a new or renewed interest in contemporary music. JPSQ performs frequently across New England in settings as varied as their programming, always striving to connect with new listeners and engage meaningfully with their community.

Jason Ji
Jason Ji is a multi-genre fingerstyle guitarist and singer-songwriter from Australia, a one-man band playing a travel-sized guitar to its most resonating and ear-catching potential. He is a sponsored artist by Saga Guitar. Originally classically trained from age 11, he eventually found his way to fingerstyle guitar from the likes of Tommy Emmanuel and Emil Ernebro. He was featured in the 2019 Guitar Night: Pop and Rock as the only soloist, the 2019 International Folk Festival in Berklee, as well as China's Got Talent in 2019, receiving all four “yes” votes. You can find him performing in Tuscan Kitchen every Friday and Saturday night.

Takumi Kakimoto
Takumi Kakimoto is a Japanese pianist and composer. His extraordinary talent was recognized with a full-tuition scholarship to the Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz composition and piano performance. From 2018 to 2020, he was honored by the Yamaha Music Foundation as a Yamaha Music Scholar, and he won the ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award in 2019 and 2020. His experience as a Boston Ballet pianist and a church pianist has influenced his approach to music, producing a fusion of different musical styles, which can be heard in his latest EP Wanderer.

Ilana Katz Katz
Ilana Katz Katz is a blues and Appalachian fiddler, singer, songwriter whose musical versatility has her performing solo, leading bands, and lending her fiddling prowess to a “Who's Who” of blues musicians from the Mississippi Delta on up. She began as a busker in 2008, playing the crowded platforms of Boston's subway stations and on the streets, where she still performs when not touring. Ilana is known for her distinguished brand of blues — including jazzy scat singing in sync with her fiddle. She's also a published novelist, screenwriter, and visual artist. Her latest record, In My Mind, debuted at No. 3 on the iTunes Blues charts and was No. 1 on the Massachusetts Blues Roots Charts. She loves bringing music to the people and considers herself a street performer above all. As a bonus, she often bakes cookies and gives them out at her shows.

Vera Meyer
Vera Meyer discovered glass music in 1983 when she happened upon street musician Jim Turner playing his 70 musical wine glasses on the street in Harvard Square in Cambridge. She was so captivated by the sound of the instrument that she immediately worked to acquire her own glass instrument. She started by building a similar set of tuned wine glasses, but very soon thereafter she heard about Gerhard Finkenbeiner, a master glassblower who built glass harmonicas. Vera contacted Gerhard immediately to procure one of the first such instruments he ever made. She has been playing the glass harmonica ever since and her performances include everything from informal functions to formal concert engagements.

Our Band
Steeped in the tradition of great male and female duets such as Johnny Cash and June Carter, Sasha Papernik and Justin Poindexter of Our Band bring their award-winning songwriting, intimate harmonies, and Eastern-European flair to a rich Americana soundscape. Together, they have performed for audiences in some of the world’s greatest venues, from Carnegie Hall to Lincoln Center to the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. In 2018-19 they toured Poland, Germany and Estonia as ambassadors of American music for the U.S. State Department. Their debut album, featuring American music legend David Amram, was released to critical acclaim in 2021.

Mark Pattison and Sandy Theodorou
Tactical Bouzouki plays Rebetika (Greek urban blues featuring Eastern modal scales and odd metered rhythms), and classic English, Irish, and American tunes, on baghlama, tzoura, bouzouki, guitar, and accordion. Born in Pireaus, Greece, Sandy (Matoula)Theodorou played with Greek roots music bands, Revma and Rebetoparea, and chairs the Boston Lykeion Ellinidon Traditional Greek Music Department. Playing guitar for most of his life, Mark Pattison performed at Salem Theater in the early 1980s. He later focused on solo acoustic guitar, studying various picking styles and complex arrangements with multiple parts played simultaneously.

Precious Perez
Precious Perez is a classically trained pop/R&B and Latin vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist with bachelor’s degrees in music education and vocal performance from Berklee College of Music. She is also a published children’s author. Her goal is to make a difference through doing what she loves and showing the world that blind people are as capable as everyone else. As an artivist and music educator, she will be able to make a difference by using her reach as a Puerto Rican Spanish speaker to crush stereotypes by sharing her experiences across cultures and doing what has not been done while advocating for all of the communities she represents. Precious aims to be the first blind Latina artist at the forefront of the Latin music industry. She is confident that she can lead, she can achieve, and she can be the one who alters the way people see.

Carolyn Peterson and Ruth Levitsky
Carolyn Peterson and Ruth Levitsky have been playing as a flute duo since 2016, when they were both members of the Colleges of the Fenway Orchestra and Flute Choir in Boston. They currently represent the flute and piccolo section in Calliope, a collaborative orchestra and choir ensemble in Boston. In addition to music, Carolyn is a reading specialist in Newton and Ruth is an academic administrator at a college in Boston.

Qwill
Qwill is the primary musical vehicle of Salem-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jesse Ciarmataro. He has shared the stage with notable acts such as Kaki King, Sinkane, and the late Richie Havens. His music has been described as “Dreamy Roots Music.”

Eric Royer
Eric Royer has been performing and recording folk music as Royer's One-Man Band" since 1994 on a crazy array of foot and hand-controlled mechanical musical instruments he built himself.

School of Honk
School of HONK is a radically inclusive brass band and all ages music school, powered by volunteer mentor musicians. Every Sunday afternoon, the band take their moves and grooves to the streets to have fun, inspire neighbors, and help band the community together.

Tony Silva
Tony Silva has been playing acoustic guitar for over 40 years. Early influences range from Stephen Stills to Andrés Segovia. His father, Pedro Silva, was from Chile, and passed on the love of the music of the Andes Mountains. As a solo performer, Silva specializes in Rumba Flamenca (the style of the Gipsy Kings). He also plays a wide range of music from Latin America, and transcribes flute and harp music from the Andes for guitar. His repertoire includes rumbas, waltzes, boleros, and huapangos with songs from Spain, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Chile and lots of Gipsy Kings! www.tonysilva.com.

Gabriella Simpkins
Gabriella Simpkins is an award-winning singer-songwriter, composer, and musician hailing from Cape Cod. Informed by her experiences across genres and performance settings, her music exists at the intersections of folk, classical, jazz, and indie rock. While simultaneously independently managing her career, Simpkins is currently attending Salem State University in the BA music program and focuses specifically on classical composition. She performs her singer-songwriter material regularly in and around Boston and hopes to establish herself further as a freelance composer in the coming years.

Sparky SINN
Sparky SINNs solo project SINN X is a one-of-a-kind, one-man band show. Performing music by live looping layers of instruments on the spot, the artist creates songs (familiar famous hits and originals) that feature a unique sound, shredding guitar skills, and out-of-this-world glowing light show like nothing you have ever seen in the world. Sparky SINN has traveled all over the United States for many years performing his unique talents.

Also performing will be Mike Hastings and the Marcus Santos' Grooversity Group.