LILY TALMERS is a Brooklyn, New York-based artist, composer, musician, educator, and community member, hailing from the state of Michigan. With a voice described as ethereal, and lyricism as wistful as it is cutting, Lily credits the 60’s Folk Revival for her beginnings as a songwriter, and various odds and ends for her development as a musician and instrumentalist– she played classical piano and cello growing up, finding herself always more moved by resonance and melody than by the discipline of notation and study.
She is largely self-taught on guitar and voice, and avoided the study of music in college, receiving her undergraduate degree in comparative literature and philosophy from the University of Michigan in 2020. She spent much of that time focusing on Portuguese and Modern Greek languages, and completing an honors thesis in ethnomusicology. Her research studied the parallels of Greek and Portuguese urban folk music, leading up to which she spent 5 months in each country, participating in their music scenes and doing language immersion programs. She was concurrently part of a Greek folk trio which played much of her research’s repertoire.
Though her musicianship reveres the American roots tradition, her compositions reveal a much broader fascination with music— the influence of Greek, Lusophone, and classical music all subtly swirl around in her melodies. Her hope is not to be tied down by genre, but rather to engage with “folk music” as it is most loosely defined– that is, “the music of the people.”
Lily has self-released, funded, and co-produced three full-length albums of her own compositions, each possessing significant musical diversity. She leads and tours with ensembles of various types around her music. One of her latest projects, entitled “Hope is the Whore I Go To,” presents a series of songs meditating on the Balkan saying “Hope is the greatest whore. The album was captured live, full band, and features stylistic nods to musical tradition from around the world– “Hope, You Whore,” a song with Brazilian samba percussive stylings, dramatic strings, and a blaring and layered mariachi horn solo, gives way directly to “Hope is a Human,” a stunning Lily-and-string-quartet moment, which features heavy-handed allusions to classical stylings, including direct reference to Alexander Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor.”
During the spring, Lily teaches at the University of Michigan’s New England Literature Program, which is an immersive literary intensive from April to June each year. There, she teaches both the core curriculum of transcendental literature, and is at the helm of cultivating a robust musical community for students, including the facilitation of a series of classes on songwriting, focusing on poetics, rhythm, harmony and creative cultivation. She has also taught as a guest lecturer through U of M’s Residential College and Performing Arts Technology Programs, focusing on songwriting, and lyricism.
JULIANNA ZACHARIOU (zak-uh/ree-yoo) is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist currently living in San Diego, CA (by way of hometown Sacramento, CA and a five year stretch in Nashville, TN). Julianna’s “sharp, witty and personal” writing, as praised by San Diego Magazine, has earned her over 8 million streams online without label support. Her latest full length album, “Hero Of Your Heart” garnered a nomination from the San Diego Music Awards as well as multiple nods from San Diego’s KPBS on radio and in print. If you catch Julianna, you are sure to enjoy a set that “masters a blend of pop, folk, rock, indie and Americana and turns it into something that feels fresh, like it’s just hers.” (J. Evans / KPBS).
Doors open 7.30pm. Music starts 8pm. The venue is mixed seated and standing. Tables are limited and available on a first come first served basis so, if you’d like a seat, we recommend arriving early!
