The Folk Collective is a quarterly gathering of twelve select artists, musicians, and cultural thought leaders. Through an active exchange of ideas and conversation, Passim aims to collaborate with The Folk Collective to present inclusive and equitable events that welcome and invite diverse audiences and artists to the Passim stage.
For more information about The Folk Collective contact shea@passim.org
supported in part by a generous donation from Nine Athens Music
Upcoming Folk Collective Events
Genre Bending and the Power of Collaboration
May 4th, 8pm: Cliff Notez, a member of The Folk Collective, is a multi-digital media artist, musician, entrepreneur, and filmmaker making their Passim stage debut! Cliff Notez will be joined by their live band for this headlining performance ahead of the release of their genre-bending single, followed by a conversation with Will Dailey, who has stepped in as one of Cliff Notez's leading producers, engineers, and guiding lights for their recent single release. The conversation between these two powerhouse creatives will inspire audiences and artists alike as it delves into the artistic process, genre-bending, collaboration, and more.
1st Annual Folk Collective Event
May 6th, 8pm: Join us for the first annual Folk Collective musical event curated and produced by our 2022-2023 cohort. This is your opportunity to hear from and meet the amazing artists, musicians, teachers, and thought leaders who are helping us pave the way for a more diverse, inclusive, and equitable Passim. The Folk Collective is a quarterly gathering of twelve artists, creatives, and musicians. Through an active exchange of ideas and conversation, Passim aims to collaborate with The Folk Collective to present inclusive and equitable events that welcome and invite diverse audiences and artists to the Passim stage.
Open Mic with special guest host Stephanie McKay
May 30th, 7pm: Passim's Open Mic will feature Creative Entrepreneur Fellows from the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston, with special guest host Stephanie McKay from The Folk Collective. Jordan Pettis, Abria Smith, U-Meleni, Daniel Callahan, and YOU are among the featured artists for a night of poetry and song.
Almira Ara: Passim Summer Series at Kendall Square
June 14th, 12pm: Almira Ara is a singer-songwriter intent on becoming the bridge between rock and r&b. With influences from contemporary r&b artists such as Kehlani and Syd, and rock influences from Willow, Lenny Kravitz, and Nirvana, Almira takes the rarest parts of rock and R&B to wield their sound.
Maxfield Anderson: Passim Summer Series at Harvard Farmers Market
June 27th, 1pm: Maxfield Anderson is an American roots multi-instrumentalist, teacher, writer, and music director living in Somerville, MA. As an artist, Maxfield aims to bring new light to honored traditions and to share the joy of making music with others.
Gabriella Simpkins: Passim Summer Series at Kendall Square
July 5th, 12pm: Hailing from Cape Cod, Gabriella Simpkins of The Folk Collective will perform at the Kendall Songwriter Lunch Series as part of Passim's Summer Series. Her rich and distinctive musical compositions straddle folk, indie rock, jazz, and classical music. Her voice is a delight! Bring a picnic and some friends and join us for a good time! The Passim Summer Series Concerts & Festivals are family-friendly and welcome the entire community.
Kim Moberg: Passim Summer Series at Danehy Park
July 18th, 6pm: Join us for an evening of original music with The Folk Collective's award-winning singer-songwriter and storyteller Kim Moberg. We Are Passim! Our Summer Series Concerts & Festivals are family-friendly and welcome the entire community. Bring your family and friends to an evening of music, laughter, and cheer!
Naomi Westwater: Passim Summer Series at Harvard Farmers Market
July 25th, 1pm: Naomi Westwater (she/they) is a queer, Black-multiracial singer-songwriter and producer from Massachusetts. They weave in and out of Folk music, flirting with rock and jazz. Naomi holds a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance and Production from Berklee College of Music. She was nominated for a 2021 Boston Music Award for Best Singer-Songwriter. Naomi's 2021 EP Feelings was featured in Under The Radar, WBUR, Vanyaland, WGBH, Allston Pudding, and The Bluegrass Situation.
Cliff Notez: Passim Summer Series at Danehy Park
Aug 8th, 6pm: Cliff Notez: Award-winning multi-digital media artist, musician, organizer & filmmaker Cliff Notez's art is a continuous exploration of the black mind. Rooted in hip-hop, their art tackles the political and the personal, exploring the intimate consequences of a society where black bodies are easily ignored, forgotten, or disregarded. In 2018 they took home Best New Artist at the Boston Music Awards, and in 2020, Cliff became the first musician to be named "Musician of the Year" for Boston Magazine's 100 Most Influential Bostonians. Cliff's Second full-length album, Why The Wild Things Are, was released on September 11th, 2019.
Lydia Harrell: Passim Summer Series at Danehy Park
Aug 15th, 6pm: We're thrilled to welcome Lydia "Lovely Singer" Harrell of The Folk Collective to the Passim family, where she'll make her debut at Danehy Park as part of Passim's Summer Concert Series. Her sultry, soulful voice and evocative songwriting have drew the attention and respect of some of the country's best musicians and venues. Her heart is in jazz and soul, but Harrell has demonstrated an unbreakable ability to mold herself into any musical situation. Whether performing with the Boston Pops, singing with Jon Batiste, serenading NBA fans with America's National Anthem, or lending her vocal talents to chart-topping deep house singles by British record label Reel People Music, Harrell's dedication to capturing the essence of the song is unrivaled. We Are Passim! Gather your friends and family for a night of music and fun! Our Summer Series Concerts & Festivals are family-friendly and open to the public. Bring your family and friends for a night of music, laughter, and fun!
Fresh Music To the Spotlight Featuring Anju & Gabriella Simpkins
Aug 22nd, 8pm: The creative process, including songwriting and record production, can sometimes be lonely and isolating. Through community and collaboration, artists and musicians can reconnect to a wellspring of aspirations and inspiration. Folk Collective luminaries Anju and Gabriella Simpkins joined forces in the fall of 2022 to support each other in releasing new music. Booking a Passim album release event together was one way to hold each other accountable for moving their projects forward. Anju and Gabriella will perform songs from their upcoming albums and share their unique journeys as New England-based folk artists working on original full-length projects.
Naomi Westwater & Friends Re-Imagining Lilith Fair
Sept 30th, 8pm: Reimagining Lilith Fair is a tribute to the feminist music scene of the 1990s with an intersectional lens for today. This event will celebrate women and gender expansive artists in the Greater Boston music scene playing their original music and 90s cover songs. This show is produced by singer-songwriter Naomi Westwater and will be followed by a talk on intersectional feminism in the music scene today.
Kim Moberg Album Release: A concert to present “The Seven Fires Prophecy: Suite for Humanity”
Oct 6th, 8pm: A concert to present The Seven Fires Prophecy: Suite for Humanity. This original composition retells the ancient Anishinaabe Legend of The Seven Fires Prophecy in song. Long ago, the Anishinaabe were visited by prophets who gave 7 predictions of what the future of this planet would bring.Each prophecy was called a fire and each fire referred to a specific period in time.
2022-'23 Cohort
Alastair Moock
Alastair Moock is an award-winning singer-songwriter; a Grammy-nominated family musician; social justice and Songwriting educator for all ages; and co-founder of The Opening Doors Project, an anti-racist music organization. The Boston Globe calls him "one of the town's best and most adventurous songwriters," and The Washington Post says, "every song is a gem."
Almira Ara
Almira Ara is a singer-songwriter intent on becoming the bridge between rock and r&b. With influences from contemporary r&b artists such as Kehlani and Syd, and rock influences from Willow, Lenny Kravitz, and Nirvana, Almira takes the rarest parts of rock and R&B to wield their sound.
Anju
Anju is a singer, songwriter, producer, and performer shaped by the people and places in Minnesota and Massachusetts. Their music conjures imaginary lovers, scents of citrus, and visions of hairy brown skin under the sun. Anju was highlighted by NPR's All Songs Considered as an outstanding Tiny Desk Contest entrant. They are currently teaching piano, violin, and guitar to young musicians and working on their debut full-length album.
Audrey Pearl
Audrey is an indie/folk songwriter and artist from Jericho, Vermont, with a passion for writing lyrics that foster imagination, empathy, and wonder for the world around us. She's currently based in Boston, MA, pursuing a major in Songwriting and a minor in Global Studies at Berklee College of Music. When she isn't sitting on her bedroom floor with a guitar and pad of paper, you can find her in the kitchen trying out new recipes or going for long walks in the woods.
Cliff Notez
Award-winning multi-digital media artist, musician, organizer & filmmaker Cliff Notez's art is a continuous exploration of the black mind. Rooted in hip-hop, their art tackles the political and the personal, exploring the intimate consequences of a society where black bodies are easily ignored, forgotten, or disregarded. In 2018 they took home Best New Artist at the Boston Music Awards, and in 2020, Cliff became the first musician to be named "Musician of the Year" for Boston Magazine's 100 Most Influential Bostonians. Cliff's Second full-length album, Why The Wild Things Are, was released on September 11th, 2019.
Gabriella Simpkins
Gabriella Simpkins is an award-winning singer-songwriter, composer, and musician hailing from Cape Cod, MA. 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 currently attends Salem State University in the BA Music program and focuses specifically on classical composition. She regularly performs her singer-songwriter material in and around Boston and hopes to establish herself as a freelance composer in the coming years.
Kim Moberg
Award-winning Tlingit artist Kim Moberg was born in Juneau, Alaska, and currently calls Cape Cod, MA home. Kim began playing guitar at age 14, but severe stage fright kept her from becoming a professional performer. In 2014 Kim set out to overcome her stage fright and wrote her first song. Kim teamed with Grammy-nominated producer Jon Evans to record two albums: "Above Ground" and "Up Around The Bend." Both have received worldwide airplay, charting on the Folk Alliance International Folk DJ charts and the NACC Radio charts. Kim and Jon are collaborating on her third album, which features songs that tie ancient prophecies to our current social environment. Kim's recognitions include the 2021 Rocky Mountain Songwriting Contest Finalist, the 2021 Great American Songwriting Contest Folk/Americana Finalist, and the 2020 CT Folk Grassy Hill Songwriting Competition Winner.
Lydia Harrell
Lydia "LovelySinger" Harrell is one of Boston's musical treasures. Her sultry, soulful voice and evocative songwriting have garnered her the attention and respect of the nation's finest musicians and venues. Jazz and soul are where her heart is; however, Harrell has shown an unbreakable ability to mold herself into any musical situation. Whether performing with the Boston Pops, serenading NBA fans with America's national anthem, or lending her vocal talents to chart-topping deep house singles by British record label Reel People Music, Harrell's dedication to extracting the pure essence of the song is unmatched. In addition to her accomplishments as a musical artist, Lydia is a film/TV, voiceover, and theatre actress.
Maxfield Anderson
Maxfield Anderson is an American roots multi-instrumentalist, teacher, writer, and music director living in Somerville, MA. As an artist, Maxfield aims to bring new light to honored traditions and to share the joy of making music with others.
Naomi Westwater
Naomi Westwater (she/they) is a queer, Black-multiracial singer-songwriter and producer from Massachusetts. They weave in and out of Folk music, flirting with rock and jazz. Naomi holds a Master of Music in Contemporary Performance and Production from Berklee College of Music. She was nominated for a 2021 Boston Music Award for Best Singer-Songwriter. Naomi's 2021 EP Feelings was featured in Under The Radar, WBUR, Vanyaland, WGBH, Allston Pudding, and The Bluegrass Situation.
Peter Mulvey
Milwaukee native Peter Mulvey dove into the deep end of all of this in 1989, on Grafton Street, in Dublin, singing with all the buskers. Those nights ruined him for any other kind of life. From then on out, it was bicycles, poetry, guitars, living humans in an actual room, coffee, more poetry, trains, the Kennedy Center, a cowshed in the West of Ireland, a cave in West Virginia, and every other digression on this, the road to somewhere.
Stephanie Mckay
Stephanie Mckay is a Medford based recording artist, songwriter, arts educator, and advocate whose artistic practice lies at the intersection of music, community, and education.
