2022 Filk Hall of Fame Inductees

The Filk Hall of Fame honors those who have contributed to filk over the years as performers, organizers, and facilitators. New inductees are announced annually during FilKONtario. The 2022 Hall of Fame inductees announced on April 3 are Mark Peters, Mary Crowell & Wesley Crowell, and Peggi Warner-Lalonde & Ken Lalonde.

Here are the new Hall of Famers’ citations:

MARK PETERS

Mark Peters has been a member of the filk community since at least 1999. In addition to running sound at OVFF and at Marcon in Columbus Ohio, he is a member of the OVFF Concom, often providing a calm voice in a sea of chaos. Mark has a passion for filk, advocating for filkers and other performers who have may not be well known, or who were overlooked.

Under his recording label, Ivan House, he has donated limited release recordings to Interfilk to share the music. Mark maintained the Ohio Valley Filk List, for sharing information about house filks and other information in mid-west. He also took a more hands on approach to the Marcon Filk programming to help diversify the filk track.

Sound engineering is hard work, physically and mentally. Mark has helpers for the setup, tear down and stage hands, but during the concerts the sound engineer has to keep track of who’s coming up next, what instruments and voices will be performing, how to move the sound gear from one performer to the next, plus trouble-shooting when something goes wrong – because in these larger concerts, there is no performance without the sound system.

In filk, words are important, and Mark always makes sure that the instruments and voices are balanced so that the words can be heard in all parts of a room. Basically, without sound engineers like Mark, the concert programming at many conventions would have died out years ago because people simply would not be able to hear the words or music clearly.

As filk performances have moved from the traditional hotel hallways and house song circles, sound engineers like Mark, and others like him, have had a profound influence on the way we can hear filk music in larger concert presentations – presented professionally, with good balance and clear words. He is deeply appreciated for his professionalism, his excellent ear, and, above all, his patience and calm when time is running short or there’s some sort of technical glitch.

For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Mark Peters is inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this third day of April, two thousand twenty two.

MARY CROWELL & WESLEY CROWELL

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

PEGGI WARNER-LALONDE & KEN LALONDE

Joined the FilKONtario Con-Com in 1996 and have been involved with the convention and filk community ever since. They have each done terms as Con-chair and in addition they have also served on the Board of Directors for The Filk Society of Upper Canada.

Peggi has run FilKONtario’s Dealers room and Filk Bizarre for over twenty-five years. She has also been Co-Chair many times, and also served as President of the Board for several years. This in addition to holding many other organizational roles on the Committee and Board. She has also become known for encouraging and organizing filk tracks at other local events, gencons, and geek and anime conventions; including ConCept in Montreal and co-running the filk track at Anticipation, the Montreal WorldCon in 2009. She was also the editor and producer of the Canadian filkzine, Filking from C to C. Peggi is an outstanding vocalist who adores harmony, and is always available to help anyone in circle, performance, or recordings. She was the Interfilk guest at ConCertino in 2012 and has performed on many filk recording as both lead vocalist and backup. Peggi also has her own CD out,which includes some of her own work as she is also an excellent songwriter!

Ken is mostly known as being the reliable, ever-present sound guy for FilKONtario though he has also filled many many other positions on the Committee and Board. With Peggi’s support he took over the sound for the convention as USB Studios and has provided much of the equipment that is used at the convention. That equipment is often purchased for “himself” though done so with what FilKONtario required in mind and only used for FilKONtario, and very occasionally at local conventions and filk community events. In the position of sound engineer for the convention he has been instrumental in providing a level of sound support in FilKONtario’s main room that has enhanced the audio experience at the convention, especially in a sub genre that relies so strongly on both lyrics and music.

Together as USB Studios’ they have brought out over nine FilKONtario CD’s and one double CD for Chicon, the 2000 World Con, where Ken was also heavily involved with the sound engineering. This in addition to CD’s for several local filkers. Peggi and Ken have not only regularly hosted house filks, they have also opened their homes to many visiting filkers from all parts of the world. Peggi is a great “filk gardener” who is very supportive and encouraging with those new to the filk community as well as to shy or reluctant performers.

In 2020 and onwards, their involvement and support for the filk community became even more apparent. They both put so much time and effort into working with, and helping many online conventions and music events within our community. Ken often provided the hosting as well as giving freely of his own time in his infinitely patient and calm way, as he worked with performers to realise the best possible sound from so many different technical setups. Meanwhile, Peggi spent many hours hosting and moderating. They are also two thirds of Filk Bytes, a regular online filk circle.

They are great ambassadors of filk, warm, welcoming, and friendly that makes them a pleasure to be around in filk circles and elsewhere.

For these contributions to filk music and the filk community, Peggi Warner-Lalonde and Ken Lalonde are inducted into the Filk Hall of Fame this third day of April, 2022.

[Note: The Hall of Fame site did not post a photo of the Crowells.]