2005 Guests of Honor - Pete and Ellen Vigour

Our Guests of Honor for 2005 are Pete and Ellen Vigour of Abemarle County, VA. They are part of a vibrant community of old time music and dance around Charlottesville area. Pete is a multi-instrumentalist and a founding member of the famed group Trapezoid. A full time music teacher, he operates a busy private music studio at Stacy's Music Shop in Charlottesville where he teaches a variety of stringed instruments.

Ellen, a special education teacher, is an award winning mandolin player and is well know as a square and contra dance caller. She also repairs and restores old violins rescued from yard sales and antique stores.

They are skilled and knowledgeable in many facets of traditional Appalachian music.

They love singing country songs in the old-time duet style as well as playing fiddle tunes and novelty songs. They also play many pieces garnered from an older generation of musicians in the Charlottesville area.

Their old time band, Uncle Henry's Favorites, began at J. P. and Annadeene Fraley's festival in Kentucky in 1976. It took various forms over the first nine years but has kept its present configuration for the past twenty years. Uncle Henry's Favorites reached a national audience on A Prairie Home Companion as a winner of the Talent From Towns Under Two Thousand contest.

For the past twenty years Pete and Ellen have presided over the Abemarle County Fiddlers'contest and have collected some ribbons of their own. Ellen won first place in the mandolin contest at the 11^th annual Maury River Fiddlers' Convention in Buena Vista, VA, while Pete took home 1^st place in the fiddle contest. Other recent appearances include the Virginia State Fair, the Appalachian String Band Festival at Clifftop, WV, and the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Festival.