Mary Simpson (violinist)
| Mary Ellen Simpson | |
|---|---|
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| Background information | |
| Instruments | Violin, Vocals |
| Associated acts | Yanni, Gary Ruley and Mule Train, Walker's Run, The Whiskey Rebellion |
| Website | www |
Mary Ellen Simpson is an American professional violinist, mostly noted for her work with Yanni, Gary Ruley and Mule Train and Walker's Run. She is a founding member of The Whiskey Rebellion band.
Simpson's father, a documented descendant of Pocahontas, plays banjo and her Taiwanese mother is a classically trained pianist. She is the sister of noted violinist Ann Marie Calhoun and her brothers play guitar.
She began learning to play violin at the age of five. She says she grew up listening to her sister play. Like her sister she played bluegrass music in her family band. According to Simpson, "her classical background gives her a wider variety of tones and better control of her sound than she would have had she only studied bluegrass."
Mary attended Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Virginia. She has a double major in music and economics from the University of Virginia.
Mary Simpson, Roy Myers, Ryan Phillips, and David Cosper connected the summer of 2005 at the Maury River Fiddler’s Convention in Buena Vista, Virginia. Myers and Phillips had been performing around Richmond while Simpson and Cosper appeared in Charlottesville while studying music at the University of Virginia. The Richmond faction invited the Charlottesvillians east for some gigs and the band was formed. As to how an historic event – the "unhappy reaction of whiskey makers to a tax imposed by the federal government during George Washington’s presidency" – ended up being their band name, Phillips explains:
"We were practicing music at Roy’s house on Floyd Avenue years ago when we glanced over at the TV. There was a special on about the Whiskey Rebellion. We had been looking around for a name and that one stuck."
Tim Deibler, bass player − a resident of Charlottesville, Virginia, who studied music at Christopher Newport University − is the newest member of the group.
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Wikipedia