Marv and his wife Rindy of Ross Productions are musicians, songwriters, producers and former teachers. Marv is also a playwright. In 1981 he and Rindy formed Quarterflash, a band signed to Geffen Records that produced four albums resulting in over 2 million records sold. Their writing and production with Quarterflash garnered several awards including Best Debut Artist 1982 from the North American Radio Rock Awards; the Recording Industry Association of America's Gold and Platinum Album Awards; and the Canadian Recording Industry's Platinum Album Award. In 1993, Marv was commissioned by the State of Oregon to write and produce Voices From the Oregon Trail, a play with music that toured for three years and was awarded the American Society of Composers, Artists and Producers Special Award. From Voices Marv formed The Trail Band, which has recorded nine albums and was presented the Meritorious Award from the Oregon-California Trails Association. In 2000, Marv and Rindy received the Alumni Award of Excellence from Western Oregon University for their contributions to Northwest history and music. In 2002, Marv was invited to the Kennedy Center's New Visions - New Voices workshop to develop Sacagawea, an original play presented by Oregon Children's Theatre. Marv has spent years doing extensive research on the music, history and culture of the native peoples on the Columbia River in the creation of The Ghosts of Celilo. He served on the board of Painted Sky, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting Native American music, and co-produced Jammin' for Salmon for the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission.

Production History

The Ghosts of Celilo began in 1997 when Marv Ross, Tom Hampson, and Thomas Morning Owl met at Celilo Village with the intent of creating a play that would feature NW Native American history, music, and language. After a year of research and interviews with people on the river, the three created a storyline based on an actual incident that occured in 1949 when the late Nathan Jim Sr. was kidnapped as a boy from his home at Celilo Falls and taken to a boarding school. In 1998, Marv received a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant to develop Ghosts of Celilo into an original musical, and began writing the book and collaborating on the score with Native American musicians, Chenoa Egawa and Arlie Neskahi. In 2003 Allen Nause from Artists Repertory Theatre helped Marv develop the script further and A.R.T. hosted the first reading of the work. In 2005, director Greg Tamblyn persuaded Marv to re-write the book again, and Broadway Rose Theatre hosted a staged reading of the new version which garnered strong reviews and encouraged Artists Repertory Theatre to make the play part of its 2007-2008 twenty-fifth anniversary season. In March of 2007, the first performance of Ghosts of Celilo was given to four packed houses at Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, in time for the fiftieth anniversary of the inundation of Celilo Falls.