Meet the Team Behind The Rememberers
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A visionary trio weaving mythic storytelling, global music, and ritual theatre into immersive gatherings that awaken ancient memory, spark self-inquiry, and reconnect us to past, present, and future community.
Mission
The ancients say when a culture or people loses its way ….that it’s time to dip back into the storehouse of the old stories. Long before there was writing, storytelling was a living art—a ritual exploration of consciousness, a moral compass, a cultural glue, a way of remembering who we are.
The ReMemberers carry this lineage forward.
A multidisciplinary trio, they weave ritual storytelling, sacred song, global percussion and live instrumentation into a prismatic experience that feels part theater, part concert, part ceremony. Violet Southard’s numinous voice, Alex Harvey’s resonant strings, and
John de Kadt’s percussive tale-telling create an atmosphere where ancient myths
breathe again - told, sung, and drummed into presence.
Each event uses an inherited wisdom tale to journey inward evoking an immersive experience that restores dismembered pieces of ourselves and the world.
The ReMemberers in partnership with their audience rekindle one of humanity’s oldest customs: coming together to listen, imagine, and be transformed.
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The ReMemberers have brought their work to an unusually wide constellation of spaces—from universities and theaters to concert halls to yoga sanctuaries, mountain churches, music festivals, and community centers. They’ve filled candlelit temples and black-box stages alike, offered residencies at major arts centers and small-town libraries, and gathered circles beneath open skies. Their stories have sounded through both sacred and secular settings: interfaith chapels, academic classrooms, and retreat centers. Whether before hundreds in a formal auditorium or a dozen listeners seated on the floor, the essence remains the same: a shared ritual of story and sound that meets each place as it is and turns it, for an evening, into a living hearth.
Past Work:
VIOLET SOUTHARD
Born and raised amidst the rolling hills and forests of Berkshire County Ma, singer-songwriter Violet channels influences from the subtle whispers of the natural world. Growing up on the back of a horse where she spent long days among the trees she recalls often feeling the presence of something otherworldly, very near. Communication with the less visible worlds became second nature but she had to keep it concealed, due to religious constraints.
After an accident in 2015, she decided to leave her job and begin homeschooling her three young children. It was then that the call back to the land, to her roots grew with an increasing urgency.
Through deep immersions in the forest, she answered the call. It was there that her ability to channel sounds and songs became clear. The hauntingly evocative sound gently took shape , driving her down into vivid, atmospheric sonic portals where she learned how to follow the sounds inward and back out again.
Violets sounds reflect a painfully honest picture of the dance between light and the shadow, beauty and the pain, grief and joy, sanity and insanity. Her voice is a complex unfolding enigma, cloaked in both mystery and reverence, drawing listeners deeply into their long banished selves.
As an ambassador of sound, she aims not to please but to conjure inner devotion and reverence for the painfully elusive and brave task of being human.
Alongside being a singer-songwriter, she works with individuals and groups through heart centered sound explorations as a holistic voice therapist and ceremonialist.
ALEX HARVEY
Filmmaker, editor, writer, musician, theatre director and folklorist - Alex has spent thirty years pushing the boundaries of how audiences experience storytelling.
Alex created, produced, and directed the feature film Walden: Life in the Woods, starring Academy Award nominee Demián Bichir. The film screened at many festivals before its release on Prime in 2019. His pandemic-themed sci-fi feature, space//space, premiered at Anthology Film Archives in 2023. Alex also wrote and directed The Unsilent Picture, a black-and-white silent film starring Bill Irwin, presented with live orchestral and foley performances as the centerpiece of Horseman’s Hollow Festival in 2018 and 2019. Alex co-directed and produced I Am A Seagull, a hybrid film by the Lake Lucille Chekhov Project, which premiered at The Public Theatre’s Under the Radar Festival and toured globally. He apprenticed under Allen Coulter on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and has presented video art projects like SONNET23 at Festival Cine Futuro in Brazil. HE also Edited feature docs, The Last Ecstatic Days and In Case We Never Meet Again.
An accomplished musician & composer, Alex co - composed the live score for Buster Keaton's THE BALLOONATIC for The Public Theater's 2010 Under the Radar Festival, as well as music for the 2016 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning Documentary, WEINER. He has worked as a producer on two recently released albums, STEAMBOAT POP and ASTROV’S LOUNGE LIVE AT JOES PUB . Alex led the popular traditional swing band, The 5000 Jazz Assassins and was the mandolinist for Michael Cerveris’ band Loose Cattle. He is currently touring with four music projects: the Brazilian duo ELEFANTES DISTANTES, the immersive storytelling collective THE RE-MEMBERERS, his sea shanty and ballad duo SHINBONE ALLEY and his ragtime novelty act THE FLOPHOUSE FOLLIES.
He is also a conscious dying ceremonialist, grief counselor and end of life doula
Born and raised amidst the rolling hills and forests of Berkshire County Ma, singer-songwriter Violet channels influences from the subtle whispers of the natural world. Growing up on the back of a horse where she spent long days among the trees she recalls often feeling the presence of something otherworldly, very near. Communication with the less visible worlds became second nature but she had to keep it concealed, due to religious constraints.
After an accident in 2015, she decided to leave her job and begin homeschooling her three young children. It was then that the call back to the land, to her roots grew with an increasing urgency.
Through deep immersions in the forest, she answered the call. It was there that her ability to channel sounds and songs became clear. The hauntingly evocative sound gently took shape , driving her down into vivid, atmospheric sonic portals where she learned how to follow the sounds inward and back out again.
Violets sounds reflect a painfully honest picture of the dance between light and the shadow, beauty and the pain, grief and joy, sanity and insanity. Her voice is a complex unfolding enigma, cloaked in both mystery and reverence, drawing listeners deeply into their long banished selves.
As an ambassador of sound, she aims not to please but to conjure inner devotion and reverence for the painfully elusive and brave task of being human.
Alongside being a singer-songwriter, she works with individuals and groups through heart centered sound explorations as a holistic voice therapist and ceremonialist.
JOHN DE KADT
Musician, percussionist, storyteller, poet. writer and festival producer. John plays ethnic percussion instruments from across the globe. He has released 5 albums ( This Rhythm Is Not Mine, One River, Eight, Speak and Follow The Sound ) which have a combined 130 million streams across 194 countries. John’s music blends instrumental compositions with occasional spoken-word elements. His music is listened to around the world and at times used to support embodiment practices, movement, dance, yoga, and deep relaxation. His instrumental pieces carry a rich world-music influence—soothing and calming, yet deeply engaging and evocative.He is known for blending unique instrumental textures to create a rich, original tapestry of sound within the world-music genre.
John has been writing poetry since he was young, carrying a lifelong passion for the spoken word. His first album, This Rhythm Is Not Mine, blends his original poetry with world-music influences in a beautifully crafted and distinctive way. He also released a collection of poems in 2024 titled Close to the Ground.
John’s poetry is shaped by the wild natural world, a deep love for the Earth, community, and ancient wisdom traditions. His poems explore themes of life, death, eros and our connection to nature. They move with the rhythm of a drummer, the heart of a storyteller, and a sensual, ethereal, and elemental depth.
John is an accomplished storyteller for more than 25 years, sharing evocative and meaningful myths from ancient cultures and mystical traditions around the globe. He tells these stories while playing an array of world percussion and melodic instruments, creating an immersive and dynamic experience.
He has performed at festivals, churches, fine arts theaters, and retreat centers, offering a style of storytelling uniquely enriched by rhythmic and melodic accompaniment. He calls this work DrumStory, and has brought it to audiences across Asia, Europe, and North America.
John is also a member of the multidisciplinary musical and storytelling trio The Rememberers, who tour regularly, weaving ancient myths with contemporary, original songs that create a beautiful and magical sojourn of story and music.
John was a founding member, percussionist and lyric contributor of the renowned sacred music group The Hanumen who released two very successful albums ( The Hanumen and Leaps & Bounds) and toured the world from 2012 to 2020.
John is the creator and producer of BlessFest, a highly regarded conscious-healing and music festival that has been running since 2018. The festival is held regularly on the East Coast of the United States and on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. BlessFest brings together exceptional artists, visionaries, teachers, and innovators in the music, wellness and healing arts from around the world. To learn more, visit blessfest.org