Speaker Biographies

Otto and Katie Ross

Katie Ross grew up in Southern California where she discovered at an early age that she loved to perform. Throughout her years in school she was very involved in theater. She graduated from Cal Western University in San Diego with a teaching degree in Spanish and French. In 1988 Katie started telling stories under the mentorship of Gail Herman.

Otto Ross spent the first eleven years of his life growing up in Austria. He then came to America with his family who settled in Wiley Ford, West Virginia. In high school Otto started playing the accordion and from there he went on to learn the guitar and the banjo. He graduated from Frostburg State University in Frostburg, Maryland with a teaching degree in math.

In 1993 Katie and her husband Otto formed a storytelling duo that they call Stories by the Score. Katie tells the stories and Otto plays music. Katie and Otto won first place at the Autumn Glory Tall Tales Contest in Oakland, Maryland in 1997 and 1999. Later Katie went on to be the first runner up in the 2004 National Storyteller of the Year Contest sponsored by the Creative Arts Institute in Blacklick, Ohio. Currently Katie and Otto are teaching part-time at Allegany College of Maryland. Also they perform whenever and wherever they can. The couple lives in Ridgeley, WV.

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