2019 Performers Schedule

7:00 – 7:20 pm, Derby Square
Blacklight Vocals
A Cappella/Beatbox
Based out of Boston MA, BLACKLIGHT strives to push the limits of a cappella. Through the use of advanced beatboxing techniques, high energy members, and hype dance music, this 6 member vocal band creates an atmosphere that will make you not only tap your feet, but get up and dance with them. Their Salem Arts Festival performance will feature a duet.

Blacklight Vocals

7:25 – 8:05 pm, Derby Square
Liz Bills and The Change
Rock/Pop
Liz Bills is a vocal powerhouse, a dynamic songwriter and an empowering force who bares her heart for the world to see. In 2011, Liz formed a rock band called Analog Heart and began gigging all over New England. Later that year, Liz Bills competed in American Idol and placed in the top 30 females in Hollywood, sharing the stage with legendary icons Mariah Carey, Keith Urban, Randy Jackson and Nicki Minaj. Analog Heart has gone on to share the stage with such acts as Bon Jovi, Daughtry, Will Dailey, Zach Deputy, Ryan Montbleau Band, Gary Hoey, The Brew, Kellie Picklier, Danielle Bradbery, Angie Miller, and Saving Abel, among many others.

8:15 – 9:00 pm, Derby Square
Aidan Scrimgeour & Jenny Herzog
Jazz/Americana Folk
Salem native Aidan Scrimgeour joins together with Boston-based tap dancer Jenny Herzog for a set of jazz standards and original music. Aidan has been active in the Boston music scene for the the past eight years, playing with the five-piece band Pumpkin Bread, performing at the Salem Jazz and Soul Festival, and putting on “Only Human,” an original musical at Ames Hall in downtown Salem. Jenny is the Founder and Executive Director of Moving Stories (movingstoriesfoundation.com), an organization that partners with local organizations to create live, full-length performances integrating storytelling, music, and dance. The two met as students in the Contemporary Improvisation Department at New England Conservatory.

Aidan Scrimgeour

9:15 – 10:00 pm, Derby Square
LadyCap
Reggae
LadyCap is a Singer-Songwriter based out of Boston. She has performed at many local venues in New England and New York. Her music style is a mix of soul, reggae and pop that’s filled with mesmerizing harmonies and soothing melodies that is not only family friendly, but good for the soul!

LadyCap

Saturday, June 8

11:00 – 11:45 am, Derby Square
Matt Heaton
Kids Music
Matt Heaton believes music for kids can be entertaining for both children AND parents. His songs are a mix of rockabilly, surf, american roots, and Irish traditional music, delivered with a wry sense of humor and a sincere sense of fun.  Children and adults alike respond to his musicianship and variety.

Matt Heaton

11:00 am – 12:00 pm, Old Town Hall Gallery
Nature in the City, with Dawn Paul
Poetry Workshop
Let’s take nature poetry further and farther. In this workshop, we’ll find ways to expand our definition of nature poetry and you’ll take home a couple of new poems.
Bring a way to write (laptop, notebook) and curiosity.

Matt Heaton

11:45 am – 12:15 pm, Front Street
Tiny Dance Stage, Group 1
Linnea Thorne
Cameron Decas
Thrance Inc
Kelsey Blanchette & Lindsey McGovern
Drew Santoro
Emma Malbon


11:45 am – 12:15 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Molly Pinto Madigan
Folk
Filled with smoke and roses, heartbreak, and beauty and unrelenting hope, Molly Pinto Madigan’s songs combine haunting melodies with raw, poetic lyrics to create an intimate and evocative listening experience. Winner of the Boston Folk Festival’s Songwriter Contest and dual Creativity Award recipient from Salem State University, Molly Pinto Madigan has earned praise for her angelic voice and hauntingly beautiful songwriting.

Molly Pinto Madigan

12:15 – 1:00 pm, Derby Square
Witch City Bellydance
Bellydance
Witch City Belly Dance is a group of local dancers, who have joined together on the Salem Arts Festival stage for ten years. They present an array of belly dance styles, spanning traditional, fusion styles, and experimentation.

Witch City Bellydance

12:15 – 1:00 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Planting with Poets
Stop by the Coffeehouse Stage to hear some poems deeply rooted in Salem, pick up a seedling (poets will be offering up Phragmites Fragments – lines to get you started on a poem of your own), make an origami flower poem, and learn about all the ways poetry is in bloom this weekend.

Host- Colleen Michaels, Improbable Places Poetry Tour/Montserrat College of Art

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1:00 – 1:30 pm, Front Street
Tiny Dance Stage, Group 2
Audrey MacLean
Jake T Crawford
Caitlin Canty / A Dream Extreme
Catey Clark
Theophile Victoria
Emma Malbon


1:00 – 1:30 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Julie Dougherty
Folk
A North Shore favorite, Julie Dougherty has been singing since the mid-sixties, starting with her sister, Kathy, performing folk music at coffeehouses in the Boston area, such as the Unicorn Coffeehouse and the King’s Rook (lucky enough to open up several times for the Kingston Trio in the 70’s). Through the years since then, she has travelled much of the country singing Irish music, original folk-rock music, and country-rock music. She also hosted a songwriting cable TV show called Songwriters In The Round for three years, which featured many fine songwriters including Noel Paul Stookey, Chris Smither, and Al Kooper, to name just a few.

Julie Dougherty

1:00 – 3:00 pm, around the festival
Miracle Fish Puppets
Puppetry
What is a Miracle Fish Puppet? Creator, Vinnie Lovegrove thinks of puppets as people.Trained as a sculptor, Vinnie finds inspiration to create his larger than life puppets from the real world all around and fairy tales we all know. Many of the huge puppets require two or three people to manipulate.

1:30 – 2:15 pm, Derby Square
Wild Planes
Rock
Sponsored by Moody Interiors
Wild Planes is a rock/pop band based out of New York City consisting of Lead Singer/Guitarist Kris Carmello, Bassist Jimmy ‘Ray’ Hoag, and Drummer Andre Jevnik. Being labeled as a “wild” band with an unmatched energy and a big personality, Wild Planes is on the rise fusing Rock “N” Roll and Pop.

Wild Planes

1:30-2:15 pm
Poets in the Round I
Host: January O’Neil
What happens when poets leave the page and take the stage? You get Poets in the Round, a spontaneous, back-and-forth mix of verse, insights, and laughter featuring some of the best writers on the North Shore. Always a crowd-pleaser!
Poets: Kirun Kapur, Dawn Paul, J.D. Scrimgeour, Margaret Young

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2:15 – 3:15 pm, Old Town Hall Upstairs
Saturday Dance Block
Kaleidoscope Dance Company
Fernando Chonqui
Rebecca Lang
Forty Steps Dance
Angelina Benitez
Accumulation Dance
*Note: Space is limited.

2:15 – 3:15 pm, Front Street
Moonrise Fae
Interactive Kid’s Performance
Moonrise Fae is a troupe of magical storytellers, dancers, musicians, and performers created to entertain humans and faeries of all ages through movement and song. Each performance engages audience members to sing, move, and laugh while learning about the magic in the world around them.

Joey Phoenix

3:15 – 4:00 pm, Derby Square
North Shore Swing Dance
Swing Dance
North Shore Swing Dance (NSSD) is a new non-profit organization committed to fostering swing dancing throughout the North Shore. They seek venues where we can put on a brief/fun/cooking exhibitions of swing dancing in public venues, including brief lessons for audience members.

3:15 – 4:00 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Poets in the Round II
Host: January O’Neil
What happens when poets leave the page and take the stage? You get Poets in the Round, a spontaneous, back-and-forth mix of verse, insights, and laughter featuring some of the best writers on the North Shore. Always a crowd-pleaser!
Poets: M.P. Carver, Jennifer Martelli, Chris O’Keeffe, Cindy Veach

3:30 – 4:00 pm, Peabody Essex Museum / Fountain Area
Quanzhou Zhao
Calligraphy
Quanzhou (Jack) Zhao is an ink and multimedia artist living in the Boston area. His artworks encircle many mediums including brushwork on rice paper, acrylic painting, pencil, ink on canvas, and 3D designs on screen and for print.

4:00 – 4:30 pm, Front Street
Tiny Dance Stage, Group 3
Cameron Decas
Catey Clark
Theophile Victoria
Caitlin Canty / A Dream Extreme
Audrey MacLean
Jake T Crawford


4:00 – 4:30 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Kirsten & Dave
Folk
Kirsten & Dave’s diverse backgrounds are the key to their success at performing a variety of musical styles. Whether they are playing acoustic pop, country, acoustic blues or folk/bluegrass, their love for music is obvious.

4:15 – 5:15 pm, Old Town Hall Gallery
Ekphrastic Poetry, with M.P. Carver
Poetry Workshop
A workshop focused on poems about or inspired by artwork (ekphrastic poems). We’ll read a few examples of ekphrastic poetry and write our own poems based on work on display in Old Town Hall. Suitable for all ages, beginners welcome!

4:30 – 4:40 pm, Derby Square
Augie Sherman / Beak Beat
Modern Dance
Augie Sherman, a newly settled Brooklyn-based artist, graduated magna cum laude from Connecticut College. Her creative investigations surround U.S.-Cuban relations and competing political ideologies. She has performed in works by Ronald K. Brown, Shen Wei, David Dorfman, and Rennie Harris. Her piece “Beak Beat” (2018) is an ode to chickens that invites audiences into a postmodern coop of zany gestures and flirtatious struts.

4:45 – 5:00 pm, Derby Square
Fly Kidz
The FLY KIDZ of the Salem YMCA are a multicultural, diverse co-ed group of kids ranging in ages from 5-15 from the City of Salem and surrounding communities. This competitive team is made up of 13 young dancers who have been performing and competing together for two years.

5:00 – 7:00 pm, Derby Square
Salem Jazz & Soul Festival Derby Square Series – Staccioli & Gresino Collective
Jazz – Special presentation sponsored by The Lobster Shanty

The mixture between funk grooves and jazz colors gave birth to the meeting of the guitarist Francesco Staccioli and pianist Riccardo Gresino who started to write their own original compositions. Both active musicians in the Italian area, they won a scholarship and flew to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music in September 2018. They wanted to give voice to the their music and that’s why they created a collective of musicians form all over the world who brought other freshness to the arrangements. Be prepared to experience grooves, cool melodies, and sparkling arrangements!


6:00 – 9:00 pm, Derby Square
Moonrise Fae
Interactive Performance
Moonrise Fae is a troupe of magical storytellers, dancers, musicians, and performers created to entertain humans and faeries of all ages through movement and song. Each performance engages audience members to sing, move, and laugh while learning about the magic in the world around them.

7:00 – 7:15 pm, Derby Square
Fly Kidz
The FLY KIDZ of the Salem YMCA are a multicultural, diverse co-ed group of kids ranging in ages from 5-15 from the City of Salem and surrounding communities. This competitive team is made up of 13 young dancers who have been performing and competing together for two years.

7:30 – 7:45 pm, Derby Square
Ritmos Academy
Latin Dance
Ritmos Academy’s mission is to preserve Latin American culture through dance.

8:00 – 8:45 pm, Derby Square
Gozarsa
Afro-Latin Salsa
Sponsored in part by Northey Street House
From traditional to contemporary salsa music, Gozarsa plays originals, covers, afro-cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation, plus a variety of tropical music everyone loves!

Sunday, June 9

10:45 – 11:30 am, Derby Square
Mr. Floods Party
Pop Rock
Founded in 1989, Mr. Flood’s Party is a rock/pop band from Boston’s north shore. Mr. Flood’s Party has recorded 6 studio albums and 1 live album covering their 30 years of songwriting.

11:30 am – 12:00 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Aldra
Folk Pop
Sponsored by Moody Interiors
ALDRA is a singer/songwriter who moved to big city life after growing up in Georgia. Her music deals with issues of mental health and coming to age all wrapped together with a jazzy edge. She currently finishing up her EP that is set to debut before July.

Aldra

11:30 am – 12:00 pm, Front Street
Tiny Dance Stage, Group 1
Nozama Dance Collective
Becky Jo Roland
Fernando Chonqui
Angelina Benitez & Rebecca Lang
Tony Guglietti & Kristin Wagner
Ryan P. Casey / Off Beat

Salem Arts Festival Dance by Creative Collective

11:30 am – 12:30 pm
Self-Portrait Poetry, with Kathi Aguero
Poetry Workshop
Visual artists have a tradition of creating self-portraits in styles ranging from realistic to abstract.  Poets do this as well.  Join this workshop to craft a self-portrait in words whether whimsical or somber. Focus your imagination on yourself.

12:00 – 12:45 pm, Derby Square
ChagallPAC Saxophone Quartet feat. Diana Norma
Classical/Jazz/Experimental
The Chagall Performance Art Collaborative is a community of artists committed to collaborating across disciplines and exploring the ways we experience art. They believe art is never the same in any given moment, but rather evolving and continually being shaped by the imaginations of its participants.

12:15 – 12:45 pm, Front Street
Baechtold & Abel Aerial Artistry
Aerial Performance
Molly Baechtold and Leah Abel are two talented circus performers who have joined forces to create dynamic duo acts on trapeze, aerial silks, the cube and other innovative apparatus. With over 25 years of combined experience, they inspire audiences in and around Boston by challenging the constraints of gravity.

12:45 – 1:15 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Lindsay Straw & Jordan Santiago
Folk
Lindsay Straw and Jordan Santiago play acoustic and traditional music with sparse, driving arrangements on guitar & mandolin, adventurous improvisations and lovingly blended vocals.

12:45 – 1:15 pm, Front Street Tiny Dance Stage, Group 2

Fernando Chnonqui
Nozama Dance Collective
Jo Troll
Ryan P. Casey / Off Beat
Tony Guglietti & Kristin Wagner
Betsy Miller Dance Projects

1:00 – 2:00 pm, around Festival area
Lynn Modell/Making Dances
Lynn Modell/Making Dances was founded in 2015 to create accessible works for everyone, including people who say they ‘can’t understand’ modern dance. Her pieces often portray humorous moments of everyday life we can all recognize, perhaps even changing our point of view. They are presenting a sidewalk dance to be performed in three different locations during a 1 hour time slot.

1:15 – 2:00 pm, Derby Square
Dark Follies
Vaudeville
Dark Follies is an award winning vaudeville style variety show based in Portland, Maine. Family friendly while still keeping an edge, Dark Follies features the live music of the Dark Follies Rhythm Orchestra, dancing, juggling, side show acts, fire performers and more.

The Dark Follies

1:30 – 3:15 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Poetry Open Mic with Joey Gould, with feature poet Eileen Cleary

Poetry to Go with The Traveling Poetry Emporium

Miracle Fish Puppets

2:00 – 2:45 pm, Derby Square
Pete & Chris Amusements
Kids Comedy & Magic
Pete and Chris Amusements are a 2-man kid’s comedy magic show that captures kid’s attention and doesn’t let go. They are regular performers for the New York Public Library System and their 92 branches. They previously performed at Salem Arts Festival in 2015.

Outrageous Fortune

2:00 – 3:00 pm, Old Town Hall
Sunday Dance Block
Tony Guglietti & Kristin Wagner
Prnay Chopra
Medley of Moves
Janelle Gilchrist Dance Troupe
Pantos Project Dance
DrumatiX
*Note: Space is limited.

Joey Gould

3:00 – 3:45 pm, Derby Square
Outrageous Fortune
Jug Band
Outrageous Fortune is a Boston-based acoustic vintage jazz and blues trio. Their repertoire features innovative arrangements of early jazz (Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong); blues and jug band music (Robert Johnson and the Memphis Jug Band); and traditional folk music.

Bosoma Dance

3:00 – 3:30 pm, PEM/Fountain area
Northshoremen Barbershop Chorus
Barbershop
Through singing in the barbershop style, the Beverly Northshoremen Chorus creates an environment of fellowship for men who love to sing and strive to be the finest performers they can be in order to delight audiences and serve the community.

3:15 – 3:45 pm, Front Street
Baechtold and Abel Aerial Artistry
Molly Baechtold and Leah Abel are two talented circus performers who have joined forces to create dynamic duo acts on trapeze, aerial silks, the cube and other innovative apparatus.  With over 25 years of combined experience, they inspire audiences in and around Boston by challenging the constraints of gravity.

3:45 – 4:15 pm, Front Street
Tiny Dance Stage, Group 3
Becky Jo Roland
Tony Guglietti & Kristin Wagner
Ryan P. Casey / Off Beat
Jo Troll
Betsy Miller Dance Projects

3:45 – 4:15 pm, Coffeehouse Stage
Greane
Folk
New England Singer-Songwriter Arian Greane has sought to find every rhyme for its reason with every step we take. Traveling the country seeking to find our commonalities as people his music seeks to spotlight our trials and reveal the hope that lies inside our hearts.

4:00 – 5:00 pm, around the festival
History Alive, Inc.
Historic Interpretation
For over 25 years, History Alive has been creating original material rooted in local history. Their premiere piece “Cry Innocent: the People vs. Bridget Bishop”–an audience immersive witchcraft trial– has been seen by over half a million people. During the festival, they will be representing mid 19th century social action songs from New England, for example, abolitionists Sarah Parker Remond, Charlotte Forten, popular medicine activist Lydia Pinkham, Hutchinson Family Singers, etc.

4:15 – 5:00 pm, Derby Square
Alexander Faria
Latin
Alexander Faria is a professional Latin Singer with an extended trajectory playing around all New England Latin Festivals

Tree house Charlatans

5:15 – 6:00 pm, Derby Square
The Dirty Dottys
Pop/Rock
The Dirty Dottys is a rump-shaking, swoon-inducing Motown-inspired pop band whose only goal is to create music that makes folks move, groove and high-five their neighbors. Honest, unpretentious lyrics and grooving tracks provide the perfect environment to be unabashedly yourself!

Flamenco Boston