VIXY & TONY (Michelle Dockrey and Tony Fabris)
http://www.vixyandtony.com/
VIXY & TONY (Michelle Dockrey and Tony Fabris)
http://www.vixyandtony.com/
Tony found filking at California filk and SF conventions. Vixy found filking at house filks and conventions in the state of Washington. They spent a couple of Orycons (in Portland, Oregon) listening to one another, then sang as a duo at a concert at one fateful Baycon in 2005 and have been performing together ever since.
Vixy was formerly the lead singer and songwriter for the band Escape Key, originally formed with her husband Matthew on guitar and their friend Audrey Eschright on flute, whose 2001 album Shadowbeast contains the Pegasus-award-winning song "Girl That's Never Been". But Matthew decided to quit guitar in order to spend more time on mad science and wilderness adventures.
Tony pronounces his last name "fuh-BREE", even though it's not technically correct because there are no silent S's in Italian. He plans to change his name to an unpronounceable symbol someday. He's the producer and guitarist for Vixy & Tony.
They won the 2008 Pegasus Award for Best Performers. In 2008, Vixy & Tony released the album Thirteen, which contains the Pegasus-award-winning "Emerald Green" and the Firefly-inspired "Mal's Song".
(http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/groups/vixy-and-tony.html)
MARY BERTKE is multitalented: braider, musician, juggler, craftsperson, dancer, writer...the list goes on. She plays tenor banjo, guitar, bouzouki, mandolin and bodhran. You can find some of her songs at http://www.dreamweaverbraiding.com/My_songs.htm. She sings of Ireland and filk cons; dragonriders and dysfunctional relationships; renfaires and the Wife of Bath.
Mary fell in love with Irish vocal music when she heard Maire Brennan singing on the Robin of Sherwood series. She fell in love with filk at her sister's birthday party when Mary was 15, and found filk conventions in 1991 - specifically, the Ohio Valley Filk Fest. There she also met a woman who introduced her to the bodhran, which led to her interest in the instrumental side of Irish traditional music. It was through these activities that Mary developed the confidence to perform in public.
In 1995 Miami University awarded Mary the Joanna Jackson Goldman Memorial Prize, which allowed her to study Irish traditional music in more depth, both in the US and in Ireland. From 2006-2008, she performed with the Irish traditional band Aisling. She sings and plays banjo and bouzouki on their album, The Pilgrim's Road: http://cdbaby.com/cd/aisling.
Mary has been Programming Coordinator for OVFF five or six times.
ERICA NEELY is a Midwest filker, who attacks serious themes in the traditional folk style. She found filk when she was attending college in England by asking a friend what his plans were for the weekend -- little did she know that he was attending his first filkcon! A year later she attended Obliter-8 (in 1996) and discovered that all of these vastly impressive people with tapes out were really quite nice and friendly. She ended up thoroughly hooking her mother on filk.
Her interests and inspirations run from hard science ("Star Song", her lament for the American space program) to whimsy ("Christopher Robin") to great literature ("East of Eden") to downright silly observations on fannish groups she's been a part of ("Average SCAdian Girl.")
She is a philosopher by training and trade, having finished her Ph.D. in Philosophy at the University of Illinois and moved on to an assistant professorship in Ohio. She has thus far resisted the urge to explain Kant via filk, but writing lectures does explain where she gets all the pain and misery she puts into her songs. (Don't worry: she tries to have at least one song where nobody dies in every concert set.)
She put out her first CD, Not Everybody Dies, in 2001. Her second CD (Hello, Stranger) can be heard at http://cdbaby.com/cd/dodeka13. There are rumors of a third CD (Half Past Eternity) in the planning stages.
PLAYING RAPUNZEL (http://www.playingrapunzel.com/): (Mich Sampson and Marilisa Valtazaou)
Mich Sampson is a lively folkie-filker from London's East End, wooing her audience with warm vocals and a deft touch on the piano. A newcomer to filk in 2001, she was Guest of Honour at Georgia's GAFilk convention in 2004 and at the British Filk Convention in 2006. Her first studio CD "Just Beyond" was released in 2006.
Marilisa Valtazanou was born in Iowa, raised in Greece and now lives in London. She has a song in an obscure language for every occasion. She will attempt to play any instrument that is foolishly left in her path, and she occasionally writes songs.
Shortlisted for nine Pegasus awards in various combinations, together they sing songs of story and myth. In their just-as-mythical spare time, they also perform Gilbert and Sullivan, hold down day jobs, and Mich is training as a choir director. Oh, and they occasionally sleep.
Their first CD "Abseiling for Beginners" was released in February 2009.