Mary came into filk, courtesy of gaming friends, at GAFilk 2001. The following year she was invited to play piano during the banquet. In 2004, she was invited to join Three Weird Sisters. Mary also became involved with another group, Play It with Moxie, which became the house band at GAFilk dinner dance. She serves as both musical director and performer, playing keyboard, vocals, clarinet, and bass clarinet and vocals.
Long before finding filk, Mary was a full-blown musician, composer, arranger, and performer. A multi-instrumentalist and singer, she has considerable academic, teaching, and performance experience. She has advanced degrees in music including a doctorate in music composition. She is a much sought after accompanist, always playing in service to the music.
Mary has taught piano and composition for many years. One of the gifts she brings to filk music is her ability to convey musical concepts to those who are not “paper trained” through her many workshops. Her yoga workshops are also very well attended – the practice promotes relaxation and focus, valuable tools for all performers. Mary has been the recipient of four Pegasus Awards, as Best Performer both as a soloist and as part of Play It with Moxie, Best Writer-Composer and Best Gaming Song. She has released three collections of her songs on CD, Courting My Muse (2008), Acolyte of the Machine (2012) and Scattering Seeds on the Pomegranate Tour (2016).
She became active in the southern filking community, volunteering her home for annual house filks. She is known to be kind, supportive, and a great person to have in any filk circle.
Wesley is not a musician, yet he plays a major support role not only for wife Mary, but to many musicians. A pediatrician by profession, on weekends Wes is often found hauling instruments and equipment, helping with set up and tear down, and making sure that busy musicians stay fed and watered. He’s a one-man combination of the best roadie, gopher, and carer you’ll ever find. On many occasions Wes has rescued someone by bringing them a snack or running back to a hotel room to grab something a frazzled musician forgot five minutes before they step on stage. He recognizes what people need and he steps in to help without being asked.
On top of all this, Wes often hosts gaming sessions at cons, and often as GM. Wes may have started coming to cons to support Mary, but in the close to 20 years since, the circle of those he cares for has expanded tremendously. On top of it all, he’s just the loveliest person around, and an amazing cook; he likes feeding musicians. Why would a successful doctor come to music cons on weekends and haul equipment and play gopher? Because that’s the kind of caring person he is—he recognizes need and he fills the need in ways large and small. It’s his super power. And he knows that he can contribute to the quality of the music this way. Without people like Wes around, musicians would have a harder time playing their best.
Recently, Wes took on the role of Treasurer for Interfilk.
As a team, Mary and Wes annually produce the GAFilk songbook: she transcribes songs to musical notation and does the general editing, while he does layout and graphics
For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Mary Crowell and Wesley Crowell are inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this third day of April two thousand twenty-two