Meet Our Musicians

Mason is a 12th grader at The Epiphany School of Global Studies. He played piano, bass and guitar with his family band, Strung Together, for six years. He's been the bass and guitar player for The Bonafides for four years. Mason enjoys performing in instrumental music at school, and he takes private guitar lessons. He also loves playing tennis, basketball and cross country.

The Bonafides are a group of friends from New Bern, NC, having a blast while playing songs they love. With guitars, mandolin, fiddle, bass, drums, banjo, harmonicas, and soaring harmonies, our musical tastes range far and wide. See more at www.bonafidesband.com.

Catherine "Catt" Oliver is an accomplished vocalist and bass player. She recently graduated with a degree in 2D animation from Savannah College of Art and Design and works for an animation company. She performed with her family band for six years and has been a part of numerous musical ensembles in college and high school. She also occasionally lends her voice to The Bonafides.

Big Sam & Company is a solo acoustic musician who sings, plays guitar, and harmonica. He plays a wide variety of all popular genres and can accommodate almost any request. Big Sam performs at many of the popular music venues in ENC. He holds a degree in Music Therapy from ECU School of Music. He actively performed over 225 shows in 2023. Performing at local restaurants, bars, music events, festivals, private parties, weddings, assisted living centers, memory care facilities, churches, breweries, distilleries, open markets, etc… Big Sam is a native to New Bern, NC and loves serving his family, church, and community. He looks forward to the new service adventures with the Angel Band Project.

You can follow Big Sam & Company at the social media links below. 

Doctor Paul is a singer-songwriter and a retired Professor who moved to New Bern after almost thirty years at the University of Hawaii. He and his wife and two pooches now live in a 170 year old home in the Downtown Historic District. Paul’s songwriting inspiration and some of his favorite tunes come from Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett and Bob Dylan, plus Hawaii! He has played at various Hawaii, mainland US, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and North Carolina venues, and donates all his musical income to Habitat for Humanity.

Mike is a lifelong musician and songwriter who has been involved in a number of different musical settings, styles and genres, focusing on vocals, acoustic and electric guitar.  Growing up in South Florida, he became involved in popular rock cover bands in the 80's, and also in music ministry at his church, both solo and folk ensemble settings.  These pursuits continued through most of his adult life, living in Connecticut with his wife and son as an engineer in the aerospace field.  He and his wife moved to New Bern in 2020.  Mike began writing and recording original music in the early 2000's.  His original music can be found on most streaming platforms (Apple, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube, etc).  Currently, Mike is available for live entertainment with acoustic sets featuring popular music from the 50's-70's including Elvis, The Beatles, Hank Williams, James Taylor, etc...  He is also available for electric sets featuring classic popular rock hits from the 60's - 00's including The Beatles, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, R.E.M, Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox 20 and more.  In addition Mike can provide live Contemporary Christian/Praise & Worship music, a mix of cover songs and original music.  For more info contact Mike at mikesabatella@gmail.com.

Jazz, soul, classical, show tunes, etc.

Jon is an Oregon-native pianist. He began playing piano at the age of 13. He studied Music Education and piano at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR. After receiving his bachelors degree, Jon enlisted in the United States Marine Corps as a musician where he served for 8 years as a jazz and pop keyboardist playing all over the country, covering many contemporary styles on electric keyboards. After the Marine Corps, Jon and his wife, Laura, moved to New Bern where they currently reside. Jon accompanies several choirs around town, works with Craven Community College’s music department as their accompanist, and plays solo gigs. He is also studying Cybersecurity at Craven CC and is hoping to find work in the field of Information Technology. 

Outside of music and school, Jon likes to run, watch professional baseball, and spend with his wife and his cat, Roo.

Let our all-female a cappella group brighten up your day! We sing many different genres of music from many different eras. 

Iowa born, military world traveler.  I have played and taught piano forever. Nothing brings me more joy than helping  to bring others joy through music.