Mike DeGiorgi is a Washington DC native who moved to Smith Mountain Lake 10 years ago with his wife, Kay and dog, Scooter. Mike has been a social worker, probation officer, Fortune 500 consultant and training specialist, and is currently a lake area realtor. Mike’s been writing songs since the 1960s and performs around Southwest Va with his band, The Panini Brothers. Mikes songs, “No Dancin at the Dudley”, “Ladies with Casseroles” and “Chick Flick Blues” always make people laugh, while “Midnight on Windy Gap” (about a soldier coming home to Franklin County) and “One Last Chance to Chase a Squirrel” (about his yellow lab, Scooter) require some Kleenex to get through! Mike took on the role of President in 2019 after missing the November 2018 meeting when we held the elections. Lesson learned.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, Mike has made his way back home to the Blue Ridge Mountains by way of Wisconsin, Illinois, the San Francisco Bay Area, and South Carolina. President since 2015, Mike is an award-winning singer-songwriter specializing in acoustic folk-blues Americana, with influences that include Chris Smither, Keb’ Mo’, John Prine, Steve Earle, and Jackson Browne. He has one CD to his name, and is working on another. You can find him performing at local venues in the Roanoke, VA area. Mike also teaches Aikido and loves to hike.

Larry is a long-time SVSA member and doesn’t tend to waste his time with things like member profiles.

Bill Stanton began writing songs worthy of playing for audiences or recording in 1970. Bill fell in love with Bob Dylan and The Byrds in the mid-sixties. He was actually hanging out at The Café Wha? in The Village as far back as 1962 when he started learning folk songs and how to pick a guitar. These days Bill is once again going one on one with audiences with his trusty Alvarez 12-string and a repertoire of traditional folk tunes, cover tunes from “Pink Floyd” and “The Eagles” and original songs.

Mollye Otis is a pianist and singer, and clams to be a songwriter in training! Mollye has worked primarily in musical theatre, as a freelancer in New York, before beginning her teaching career in professional musical theatre training programs in several universities, including Penn State and University of Miami. She completed that chapter at East Carolina University to begin a new life in Roanoke in 2017. Happily delving into the musical scene here, Mollye connected first with SVSA and says she’s “learned so much already.” She is also co-Vice President with the Roanoke Valley Music Teachers Association, a fine group of professional colleagues, a member of National Association of Teachers of Singing, and a volunteer with 3rd St. Coffeehouse. Recently, Mollye took the post as Music Director of Unity of Roanoke Valley, a richly diverse and enlivening musical opportunity. Life is full of creative possibilities!