Alison Torrillo French
Alison grew up in the fabled New York habitat known as Lawn Guyland and has been trying to shake the accent ever since she left 10+ years ago to attend Cornell University (because everyone knows there are NO Long Islanders there!). After graduating in 1995, with her first taste of a cappella as a member of After Eight, the all-female a cappella subset of the Cornell University Chorus, Alison took her low alto voice to New York City where she pursued her newfound love by attending performance after performance of fabulously talented groups that she was not in. Upon moving to Washington, DC, in 1996, she decided to do something about it and co-founded the women’s a cappella group Drastic Measures, which had a successful run through early 2003. After a brief stint with the American University Chorus while pursuing both a job and an MBA there, Alison now works as a manager with BearingPoint consulting and is thrilled to be singing once again with T&G, where she is proud of her distinction as the woman who can sometimes sing lower than the guys.
Fun facts about Alison:
Favorite guilty pleasure: Breyer’s All-Natural Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream...the FULL FAT kind!! :-)
Favorite thing to do in DC: Why, singing with T&G, of course!! Also like the great restaurants, Arena Stage, karaoke and swing dancing at various venues. And watching the planes land at Gravelly Point...very cool.
Favorite place I've traveled: Tuscany and Italy’s Amalfi Coast
Biggest pet peeve: I am a bit of a grammar freak...I go nuts when people use the word ”it’s” when it should be “its” or “there” when it should be “they’re”...and don’t even get me started on “accept” and “except”...!!
Musical influences: Low altos like Diana Krall, Karen Carpenter and the Indigo Girls (Amy Ray in particular) and time-tested musicians like Billy Joel and Sinatra. Also, the funky female-fronted NY-based band Sirsy
(www.sirsy.com)
because I totally admire them for going pro...and they kick major butt! :-)
Nate Pipke
Born and raised in Rocky Hill, CT, Nate Pipke ventured
south to attend Mary Washington college in
Fredericksburg, VA. While at Mary Wash, Nate was
involved with the campus a cappella group, the
Symfonics, as well as the Show Choir and several
musicals. After college Nate worked full time as an
actor and singer in regional theatres in New England.
He then returned to VA and became a kindergarten
teacher in Stafford County, VA. Nate was a founding
member of Almost Recess and toured extensively with AR
for almost 3 years. He has now made a return to
teaching in Alexandria, VA and is looking forward to
molding the minds of 5th graders. After 2004, Nate can
die a happy man having seen both the Uconn Men's and
Women's basketball teams win National Titles, along
with Super Bowl wins for the Patriots and capped off
by a Red Sox World Series victory. Nate is excited to
be singing again with Tonic and Gin.
Marissa Hodgkins
Marissa Hodgkins is a native Washingtonian in the truest sense, having been born in DC,
raised in Northern Virginia, and lived in DC and Maryland. She was bitten by the
a cappella bug while attending the University of Virginia and sang with the Virginia Belles,
an all female group. After getting her Masters degree in Speech Language Pathology, she
returned to DC to be married, work as a pediatric speech pathologist, sing a cappella with
Werd of Mouth and the DC Accidentals, and have 3 children, kind of in that order.
Happy to be singing now with T&G, she is the only T&G member to: live in MD (Silver Spring),
have kids (3 of them: Harrison, Tommy and Camille), drive a minivan, and have a keyboard.
Fun facts about Marissa:
Favorite guilty pleasure: Reality TV – she’s really a junkie! And napping.
Favorite thing to do in DC: Nap! Oh, and go to DC United and Washington Nationals games
Favorite place I've traveled: Boracay in the Philippines
Favorite Musicians/Bands: Prince, Sheryl Crow, anything on Sirius’ Classic First Wave and Soul Town
Stephanie Wu
Stephanie is from Cranbury, NJ right outside of Princeton. She graduated with a BS in
Mathematical and Statistical Sciences from Carnegie Mellon University in 2005
(i.e. she is the currently the youngest T&G member). At Carnegie Mellon, Stephanie sang in the
co-ed a cappella group Soundbytes.
She currently works at Corporate Executive Board. Stephanie loves running,
spending time with friends, starting out her Saturday mornings at a coffee shop, anything related to fitness,
and shopping.
Fun facts about Stephanie:
Favorite guilty pleasure: Basically any desserts. And peanut butter...insane amounts of peanut butter.
Favorite sport: Marathon events
Little known fact: Stephanie's right pinky is shorter than her left one.
Favorite food: Anything with peanut butter; cheesecake; oatmeal.
Favorite place I've traveled: It's between Venice,Italy or Stockholm,Sweden
Favorite musicians/bands: U2, Sarah McLachlan, DMB, Gavin DeGraw, Dishwalla, Switchfoot, Vivaldi
Ben Keller
Benjamin Keller is proud to call Olean, NY, his
hometown (and yes, also the home of Cutco cutlery--now
with the lifetime guarantee!). Ben has been singing as
long as he can remember--at least, in the car, the
shower, etc. Somewhere along the line, someone gave
him the crazy notion that other people might actually
like to hear his bari/bass voice, so he started
singing in choir. Though having had no prior exposure
to college a cappella, he joined the University of
Richmond Octaves in 1995 and had a blast for three
years until his graduation. As a grad student in
Germany he performed, traveled, and drank beer with
the Vokalensemble Cantabile Regensburg, and once
finished with his education he helped to found The
Lake Effect, an all-male group based in Buffalo, NY
(which, he would like to point out, has more annual
days of sunshine than DC--believe it or not!). After
searching for his vocal niche in the DC area for over
a year, Ben is glad to have come upon Tonic & Gin at a
time when they needed someone to hit the low notes,
and the saga continues...
Fun facts about Ben:
Guilty pleasure: None--why should I feel guilty about
pleasure? :-)
Favorite thing to do in DC: Drive on the Beltway at
rush hour
Favorite football team: Oakland Raiders. The Silver
and Black will be back! um, sooner or later...
Favorite travel destination: Bavaria
Music: Officially, Steely Dan is my favorite group,
but that's more an ideological statement than a
reflection of my listening habits these days. I like
the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Gorillaz are weird
in a good way. What else? Springsteen has evolved from
rocker to poet to cultural icon (you know you've
reached a new level when PBS starts making a big deal
out of you). I imagine there's a lot of lesser-known
stuff out there that I'd like, but I'm in some sort of
indie-proof bubble or something: Van Halen, Tom Petty,
U2, Coldplay. Classics such as Zeppelin and The Who
have permanent toeholds in my collection, too. My
classical tastes tend toward the big stuff: Bach,
Tchaikovsky, Wagner, although I also like older choral
stuff like Palestrina. Quote from Douglas Adams:
"Mozart tells us what it's like to be human, Beethoven
tells us what it's like to be Beethoven, and Bach
tells us what it's like to be the universe."
Pet peeve: People who write bios that are too long
Bruce Shim
Bruce is a Virginia/DC Metro area native. Although he was born in Seoul, Korea, he came to the states at the ripe age of 1. He is an only child and despite all stereotypes, he is not spoiled. He graduated from William and Mary as a Psychology major and completed his Masters in Information Technology at Johns Hopkins University. At W&M, he sang in an all mens acappella group called the Stairwells. He also sang in an Early Music Ensemble and the Mclean Bible Church Vocal Choir. He now works as a Consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in Mclean VA. Bruce loves to stay fit, hang with friends, play all types of sports, drive with the tunes blasting, and just vegging out in front of the TV during downtime.
Fun facts about Bruce:
Favorite guilty pleasure: all types of cuisine, especially Thai. So good!!!
Favorite place I've traveled: Hawaii
Unique things: Cheerleader and Gymnast in college. And somewhat of a thesbian.
Biggest pet peeve: Closed-mindedness
Favorite Musicians/Bands: Jason Mras, Michael Buble, James Taylor, Boyz 2 Men, Rascal Flats, the Monster Ballads CD, and so much more.. Definitely a fan of all types of acappella. The tight harmonies just make my skin crawl!!
Mati Makagon
Mati feels odd writing about himself in the third person. He is six foot tall, weighs about 215 pounds, give or take, and spends his time disorganizing organized thought and organizing disorganized thinking.
Just like Bruce, Mati also went to William and Mary where he feigned studying Economics while singing in the Stairwells, the self proclaimed "bad boys of a cappella", leading the group as director for two years. Unlike Bruce, Mati is not that into astronomy and in particular stays out of Uranus. (What differentiates Mati from Ben on the other hand is that if Mati starts speaking of himself in the third person in an online biography he sticks to it till the end, no matter how awkward.)
Fun facts about Mati:
Miscellaneous: High school football team went to the semi-finals the same year Mati played defensive tackle in the fall and performed in the ballet Coppélia in the spring, practicing his wedding tackle.
Unique things: 42
