About the Group and Members

Sassafrass formed at Bryn Mawr college in fall of 1999, as a group of five friends performing primarily work composed by Ada, one of the group members. The group expanded over the next years as some members left and others joined, and we started dividing up into smaller groups to perform some of the songs. In 2001, Sassafrass recorded the CD entitled Solitary Dancer. After the initial founders graduated, more members joined, some of whom have remained active members ever since.

Some of the initial common ground among the members of Sassafrass was a sense of frustration with music groups whose music generally featured one soloist and possibly one backup singer, with many others singing repetitive parts to replicate background instruments. Anyone who has sung 'Ooh' behind the lyrics of a pop song for six minutes knows the frustration this can cause. Sassafrass's founders felt that, especially for a student group, the singing should be as much about learning and giving each singer a chance to mature and improve as a musician as about the sound. Sassafrass resolved to only perform songs where each singer's part is at some point the musical highlight, and where every part is important throughout to the harmony, melody and lyrics. By ensuring that all parts are equally important to the structure of the music, Sassafrass songs are designed to make the singer a better musician, and to teach techniques for blending, harmonizing and improvising, improving both the individual singer and the sound of the group.

Partly because of the scarcity of such music and partly because of our own interests, we resolved to perform primarily original pieces composed by group members. Sassafrass music includes love songs, usually with a twist; songs about attitudes toward life; improvisations; Renaissance madrigals; filk; and folk fantasy, songs which not only are based on fiction, but try to imagine and imitate the musical styles of fictional cultures. The music is usually folk in style with Renaissance elements.

Though we are no longer a student group, Sassafrass still focuses on designing songs that will help singers grow and improve, ourselves and others. For this reason we are always happy to have others perform our music, especially students. As this web site develops we will make sheet music available for purchase, as well as a Teaching section, with tutorials, practice exercises and other tools which have worked well for us in the past and which we are eager to share with others. Anyone interested in trying one of our songs or techniques is welcome to contact us any time for advice or help.

Sassafrass today consists of a group of friends, almost all Bryn Mawr alums, who live in different parts of the country but all enjoy sci-fi, fantasy and anime, especially conventions, which is what pulled us into the Filk community. Because we live far apart it is essentially impossible to get the whole group together, and the actual members present at any given convention performance is highly variable, but since most of the songs work well with three to four singers we can still perform the majority of our repertoire. We perform mostly in the New England area, but are happy to travel farther afield if practical.

Memberlist

This list is incomplete as we are still gathering information from old members, and not all have yet given permission for us to list their names online.

Active Members

• Lila is an independent scholar specializing in literary sci-fi, fantasy, horror, anime, manga and gender studies. She has published short fiction and poetry in several magazines and journals, has an article in the upcoming Encyclopedia of Women in Science Fiction, and has been nominated for the BSFA and the Rhysling. She is a frequent face and occasional panelist at literary F&SF cons across the US and Canada. She has been a member of Sassafrass from the beginning. Her blog is at rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com/.
• Irina is a High School Latin teacher, but also proficient in French and a student of many other languages from Japanese to Provencal. She runs a series of educational podcasts on Ovid. She was one of the original founders of Sassafrass and has remained one of its most enthusiastic members. Irina's primary fan activities are gaming, videogaming and anime and manga, with a special focus on the history of shoujo and women's literature in Japan. Her blog is at seishonagon.livejournal.com/.
• Ada is a graduate student in European Intellectual History, focusing on Renaissance Italy, and hoping to finish her doctorate soon. She is also the composer of almost all Sassafrass's music. She took Peabody music theory courses in childhood, and has studied violin, piano, guitar, and various medieval instruments, but her compositions are primarily vocal. Outside the Filking world, Ada enjoys most sci-fi, fantasy and gaming activities, especially LARPing and costuming. She is active in the anime fan community running cosplay and gameshow events like Cosplay Human Chess, primarily at Anime Boston. She is the cosplay columnist for Tokyopop.com and runs TezukaInEnglish.com, the primary English language web source on the founder of modern manga, Osamu Tezuka. Ada suffers from RSI so she does not have a blog, but on LJ others usually refer to her as Thrud.
• Lauren is another of the founding members of Sassafrass. She is a librarian with a Masters in library science, and primarily interested in science and new library technologies. Lauren is fond of musicals and the musical styles of the 1920s through 1950s, and brings a different tone to Sassafrass's mostly-Renaissance feel. She too is a sci-fi/fantasy fan and active cosplayer, and has staffed many anime cons, running gameshows and cosplay events. Lauren is the administrator and primary contact for the Sassafrass website and LJ community. Lauren sometimes updates her Livejournal.
• Ruth was a friend and classmate of the founders of Sassafrass back at Bryn Mawr and supported us with her enthusiasm for many years, but only recently became an active member. She is a therapist, specializing in clients from alternative lifestyle subcultures, such as goths, punks, gays, lesbians, nerds, otaku etc. She recently completed her doctorate, conducting research on how therapists' values affect their approaches to treating clients who practice BDSM (bondage & discipline, dominance & submission, sadism & masochism). Ruth's blog is gaudior.livejournal.com
• Zara is a Zara. Currently studying computer science and engineering, she gleefully anticipates a career in mad science and works tirelessly on acquiring the prerequisite madness by taking on far too many and various creative projects at a time. On the Web she is AngstnoKami, with a blog at LiveJournal.
• The cover and insert art for Sassafrass's CDs are done by Laura Higgins Palmer, Ada's mother, who specializes in oil painting and ink drawings of dancers. More of her work can be found at StudioLHP.com.

Inactive Members

• Inactive members include Hanah, the composer of As I Say Goodbye, as well as others whom we hope to list soon.