They will dance, sing, play the bass. They are on stage, on gallery walls, in a local park.

Hundreds of artists will have their craft on display in Maine this summer. Here are a dozen of them.

Jackie “Miss Funk” Lopez will be performing, teaching and emceeing at the Bates Dance Festival. Photo by George Simian

NAME: Jackie “Miss Funk” Lopez

BACKGROUND: Lopez, 45, is a first-generation Latina Los Angeles native who has been a professional dancer and street dance practitioner for 25 years.

THIS SUMMER: She’ll be performing and teaching at the Bates Dance Festival, and she’ll be the emcee for the street dance competition. “My hope is to share my lived experiences from Hip Hop to Popping & House! All dance forms that have deeply shaped me into the resilient woman I am today! AND I’m also very excited to MC the first ever Hip Hop battle at the Bates Dance Festival, that alone is history and being part of it excites me as I’ll be able to engage with the audience as I share the the beauty & depth of what is happening within our culture.”

WHAT KIND OF ENERGY SHE EXPECTS AT THE DANCE BATTLE FINALS: “From all my years attending battles, the finals always tend to be the most dynamic & exciting! It gives a moment for two dancers to display their skills at a high-level, therefore making the battle very entertaining and inspiring for the next generation and the audience! Let’s go! Super excited to witness the magic!”

Advertisement


Nate Farrington is the principal bassist of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra. Photo by Jenna Bascom and courtesy of the Portland Chamber Music Festival

NAME: Nate Farrington

BACKGROUND: Farrington is a bassist, singer and composer living in Los Angeles, California, and is the principal bassist of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra.

THIS SUMMER: He’ll be playing bass in several concerts at the Portland Chamber Music Festival, including as part of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra. He will also play solo in a show called “Nate’s World: Songs of Love,” which sets famous arias side by side with folk songs that equally express love’s frustrations.

ON THE INSPIRATION FOR “NATE’S WORLD: SONGS OF LOVE”: “Opera is visceral, and I believe, the most accessible gateway into classical music for audiences. It uses the voice, something we all have, to express that human vulnerability. We understand it somehow even when we don’t speak the language being sung. To pair it with modern songs that audiences will recognize (i.e. ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ or the old blues tune ‘Frankie and Johnny’) makes clear that composers from centuries past were just working out the same sticky subjects that Beyoncé and Taylor Swift are now. Hopefully this should help break down the stuffiness and formality that currently afflicts classical music’s reputation.”


Maine author Morgan Talty will talk about his debut novel at Print: A Bookstore in Portland. Photo courtesy of Tin House

NAME: Morgan Talty

BACKGROUND: A citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation, Talty teaches Creative Writing and Native American and Contemporary Literature at the University of Maine. His debut short story collection, “Night of the Living Rez” (2022), won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Prize and several other honors.

Advertisement

THIS SUMMER: He’ll be doing about 15 readings and events in support of his debut novel, “Fire Exit,” which goes on sale in June. It’s a story of family, legacy, bloodlines, culture and inheritance. Talty will talk about the novel on May 31 at Print: A Bookstore in Portland, in a conversation with Maine author Lily King.

WHAT HE LIKES ABOUT READINGS AND AUTHOR EVENTS: “I love chatting with the readers and answering questions. That’s my favorite part. And making them laugh (when they don’t laugh that’s on them because I’m funny). But I also love what they have to say about the book to me – they see things I didn’t see. For example, one reader told me how Dee in “Night of the Living Rez” feels like Gluskabe, the man from nothing, who is our Penobscot cultural figure/hero. When people say things like that I respond with, “Well, where were you when I was writing this?”


Desi Oakley is starring as Jenna in Ogunquit Playhouse’s production of “Waitress.” Photo by Nile Scott Studios and courtesy of Ogunquit Playhouse

NAME: Desi Oakley

BACKGROUND: Oakley is a stage, screen and voice artist based in New York City. Her previous work on Broadway includes “Chicago,” “Wicked,” “Annie” and “Les Misérables.” She is also a coach and mentor for young artists and an advocate for mental health organizations.

THIS SUMMER: Oakley is playing Jenna Hunterson in “Waitress” at the Ogunquit Playhouse. She is most known for originating this role in the first national tour of the musical and starring in the role on the West End in London.

WHAT SHE LOVES ABOUT THIS CHARACTER: “Jenna represents a lot of us. She’s honest, messy and beautiful. I love playing a woman who is real. She makes mistakes and stays open to love despite her hurt. She has taught me a lot, and it’s my joy to portray her.”

Advertisement


Goitsemang Lehobye will perform in two shows at Opera Maine this summer. Photo courtesy of Goitsemang Lehobye

NAME: Goitsemang Lehobye

BACKGROUND: Lehobye was born in Ga-Rankuwa, South Africa, and first heard opera during a television broadcast featuring the South African Black Tie Opera Ensemble. Since 2017, she has been studying at the University of Michigan and recently completed a doctorate degree. This will be her first time in Maine and her first appearance with Opera Maine. One of her career highlights was being a soloist for the tour of the Minnesota Orchestra to South Africa where she premiered a work by Bongani Ndodana called “Harmonia Ubuntu.”

THIS SUMMER: The soprano has roles in both of Opera Maine’s performances this summer: “Rappahannock County” (June 28-30) and “Aida” (July 25-28).

HOW SHE WILL APPROACH HER ROLE IN “RAPPAHANNOCK COUNTY”: This opera is a theatrical song cycle, which means Lehobye will represent different characters during the production. “I’ve never done anything like this before. … It’s exciting to learn a new composer, a new style of work. That’s what’s interesting about it, and to have multiple characters that I can play within my character. It is challenging me to make them different.”


Ketch Secor grew up vacationing on Vinalhaven and will play Maine this summer with Old Crow Medicine Show. Photo by Kit Wood

NAME: Ketch Secor

BACKGROUND: Secor grew up mostly in Virginia but started coming to a family summer home on Vinalhaven as a child. He spent time in Portland in the mid-1990s as a young adult, playing on street corners and in small clubs, before becoming the frontman of the Grammy-winning roots/country band Old Crow Medicine Show. He plays fiddle, banjo, harmonica and sings.

Advertisement

THIS SUMMER: Old Crow Medicine Show will be taking its “25 Years & Counting” tour across the country, including a performance at the State Theatre in Portland on July 19.

WHAT HE REMEMBERS ABOUT BEING A YOUNG MUSICIAN IN PORTLAND: I’ve busked in some cold weather before but never like January in the Old Port. Even fingerless gloves were a recipe for frostbite. We rented a room on Cumberland when that cost about $125 a week and really daydreamed about making it big in Maine. ”


Karoline Brechter is one of the MSMT Singers this summer. Photo courtesy of Maine State Music Theatre

NAME: Karoline Brechter

BACKGROUND: Her hometown is Bridgewater, Massachusetts, but she is currently studying at the University of Southern Maine.

THIS SUMMER: Brechter, 19, is one of the MSMT Singers, a group of eight outstanding current students or recent graduates scouted from across the nation. They will perform in the ensembles of the Maine State Music Theatre’s main stage shows “Funny Girl” and “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” as well as in family productions and other special events.

THE SHOW SHE’S MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS SUMMER: “I am most looking forward to ‘Funny Girl!’ ‘Don’t Rain on My Parade’ is one of the first musical theatre songs I ever learned, and the dance numbers are incredible! I am thrilled that my first Regional Theatre experience this summer includes a show that is both extremely iconic and very important to me.”

Advertisement


Author Michael Koryta will be presented with the Maine CrimeMaster Award in June. Photo by Jonathan Mehring

NAME: Michael Koryta

BACKGROUND: Koryta, 41, is a New York Times bestselling author who spends half the year at his home in Camden and half the year in the place he grew up, Bloomington, Indiana. Koryta worked as a private investigator and is known for his crime novels. His latest book, a supernatural thriller called “Lost Man’s Lane” and written under the name Scott Carson, came out in March.

THIS SUMMER: Koryta will be presented with the Maine CrimeMaster Award on June 14 at the Glickman Family Library in Portland. After getting the award, presented by the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Koryta will talk about his writing with book reviewer Katrina Niidas Holm. The event is free, but reservations are encouraged.

HOW SPENDING TIME IN MAINE HELPS HIS WRITING: “I like to sit in a coffee shop or a bar with a notebook and just listen. Lucky Betty’s in Camden is where I sorted out half of (the plot for) ‘An Honest Man.’ I keep thinking I’ll set the next book in another state, but then I’ll stumble down some trail or back road that’s new to me, and the stories seem to wait there. The past is always present around here. I love that.”


“Lot 010523 (chartreuse house)” by Donald Moffett. This piece will be included in “NATURE CULT, SEEDED.” Photo courtesy of Donald Moffett

NAME: Donald Moffett

BACKGROUND: Moffett is a visual artist who fuses his work with social commentary on political and social concerns, such as the AIDS epidemic and climate change. He is based in New York City but has a long connection to Maine and is a seasonal resident of North Haven.

Advertisement

THIS SUMMER: His first exhibition in Maine will be at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland. “NATURE CULT, SEEDED” (May 25-Sept. 8) is part of his ongoing study in the intersection of art and science, especially climate. The work on view is a combination of paintings, photographs, drawing, sculpture and sound.

HOW SOUND FACTORS INTO THE EXHIBITION: “It’s a looped bird call. It’s the last known recording of a Hawaiian bird called the Kaua‘i ‘ō‘ō. It’s a mating call, so it’s very beautiful, but he’s the last known specimen, so there’s no response. It’s very compelling and very beautiful, certainly a statement about biodiversity loss and the wreckage of that, and you can hear it.”


Dweezil Zappa will play Portland in August.  Photo by Timothy Kuratek

NAME: Dweezil Zappa

BACKGROUND: The son of the groundbreaking rock musician Frank Zappa, Dweezil Zappa, 54, has been a performing and recording for more than three decades. A Grammy-winning guitarist, he’s released more than half a dozen solo albums. He’s also led a tribute band, Zappa Plays Zappa, playing his late father’s music.

THIS SUMMER: This summer Zappa will play a 30-city tour focused on celebrating the 50th anniversaries of two of Frank Zappa’s landmark albums, “Roxy & Elsewhere” and “Apostrophe.” He’ll make a tour stop at Portland’s State Theatre on Aug. 24. And he’ll have his father’s guitar with him.

WHY HE THINKS HIS FATHER’S MUSIC STILL RESONATES WITH LISTENERS: “The compositional sophistication of my dad’s music is part of the appeal. As you peel back the layers you make new discoveries, so it has amazing repeat listening value!”

Advertisement


Emma Hassencahl-Perley paints a mural at the Portland Museum of Art that depicts Wolastoqiyik women paddling a birchbark canoe, portaging and trapping food. Photo by the Portland Museum of Art and courtesy of Emma Hassencahl-Perley

NAME: Emma Hassencahl-Perley

BACKGROUND: Hassencahl-Perley, 29, is Wolastoqiyik from Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation), New Brunswick. She is a visual artist who works in beadwork, murals and digital illustration.

THIS SUMMER: She is one of the curators of “Wabanaki Modern: The Artistic Legacy of the 1960s ‘Micmac Indian Craftsmen,’ ” which is on view at the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbor through October 2024. Hassencahl-Perley also painted a mural at the Portland Museum of Art as part of the reinstallation of the permanent collection there in 2023, which is still on view.

HOW CURATING “WABANAKI MODERN” IMPACTED HER OWN ARTISTIC PRACTICE: “I was unaware of the legacy of the Micmac Indian Craftsmen, despite learning art history in the province of New Brunswick, they were not widely recognized for their efforts in visually and artistically preserving Wabanaki oral stories. This means a lot to me because my artistic practice is heavily rooted in the art histories of this place – in New Brunswick, in Atlantic Canada, in Wabanakik (the place where the sun first rises). And our traditional stories tell the stories of this place and how it came to be. They foster fundamental teachings on survival, ethical conduction, karma, respect, and so on. In my work, I aim to build upon archives of stories through visual and material culture. So to be in the presence of these objects, to be apart of collecting them, was galvanizing because I get to contribute in the same ways.”


Author Ben Shattuck will discuss his new book at Print: A Bookstore in July, with Morgan Talty. Photo by Andreas Burgess

NAME: Ben Shattuck

BACKGROUND: A writer and painter, Shattuck’s first book was a 2022 memoir called “Six Walks,” retracing hikes or strolls taken by 19th century naturalist, poet and philosopher Henry David Thoreau, including up Mount Katahdin in Maine. He’s also co-owner of one of the oldest general stores in America, Davoll’s, built in 1793 in his hometown of Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

THIS SUMMER: He’ll be appearing at events in New England and beyond to promote his new book of stories, “The History of Sound.” Two of the stories are set in Maine. One is about two young men recording folk songs on wax cylinders hundred years ago, and a companion story is about a woman in Brunswick who discovers the cylinders years later. He’ll discuss the book at Print: A Bookstore in Portland on July 18 in conversation with Maine author Morgan Talty.

WHY HE THINKS PAINTING HELPS HIS WRITING: “I think painting helps writing in that it’s easier for me to envision the scenes I need to describe. I spent so much of my life trying to interpret and almost memorize visual information – because I paint representational oil paintings – that when it came to writing, it was just a little easier to close my eyes, see what I was trying to describe, and just transcribe that.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.