Music Staff
Paul Anderson, fiddle.
PAUL ANDERSON (Aberdeenshire, Scotland). Winner of numerous fiddle competitions including Scotland's premier Glenfiddich Scottish fiddle championship (1995), Paul Anderson has toured extensively and recorded eight solo albums and over forty albums with artists like Pallas, Rock Salt and Nails, The Cutting Edge and the Banchory Strathspey and Reel Society. Past performances include seven cruises with the National Trust for Scotland, Celtic Connections (Glasgow), The Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention 2001 (Aberdeen) 2006 (Aberdeen) 2008 (St John's, Newfoundland) 2010 (Aberdeen), the Lorient Interceltic Festival (Brittany), The Fiddler's Spectacular (HMT Aberdeen), Orkney Folk Festival, Shetland Folk Festival, N.A.T.O's only Burns Supper in Brussels,Glen Innes Celtic Festival (NSW Australia), and the MacRobert Hall (Tarland). In 2008 he was musical director for HMT Aberdeen's critically acclaimed production of "Sunset Song" by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. He has performed for birthday celebrations for Prince Charles and for Sir Sean Connery.
Paul has tutored solo, workshops and master classes from Aberdeen to Australia and from Banff to British Columbia. In 2003/2004, Paul was the Aberdeenshire town of Huntly's fiddler in residence, the first time a fiddler has held such a post anywhere in the UK. While a research fellow at the Elphinstone Institute of the University of Aberdeen (2006-9), Paul undertook groundbreaking research aimed to re-connect local musicians with the unique fiddle style of the North-East of Scotland. As well as writing articles and giving talks and lectures on the subject Paul has also given papers on the North-east fiddle style at the 2008 North Atlantic Fiddle Convention and the 2009 London fiddle conference. In 2008 Paul was instrumental in re-establishing a fiddle championship at the Aboyne Highland Games after a 140 year break and in 2009 in association with the Aberdeen Arms in Tarland founded the "Cromar Folk Club."
Paul has composed over 300 pieces in the Scots tradition, including the theme tune for the film "Red Rose" about the life of Robert Burns, as well as the theme music for "Tartan TV" (PBS), which he also recorded. In 2009 the "Lochnagar Collection" of 208 of Paul's original compositions was published by Highland Music Trust. and as part of his Elphinstone Institute fellowship he compiled and edited "The Elphinstone Collection" ("Tigh-na-Teud," publisher) of previously unpublished and out of print fiddle repertoire from the north-east of Scotland. As part of his work with the Elphinstone Institute he also compiled and produced the CD, "Hector MacAndrew, Legend of the Scots Fiddle" which was released in parnership with Greentrax recordings.
Paul was brought up on the family dairy farm at Tarland near the Cairngorm National Park in the heart of rural Aberdeenshire, where at the age of five he discovered an old fiddle under his grandparents spare bed, an old French violin which he plays to this day. Tutored by Angus Shaw of Banchory, Douglas Lawrence of Buckie, Paul returned to a dual life of fiddling and farming before turning to music full time. He "...was finding it difficult to cope with a day's work on the farm which started at about 5.45.AM, followed by a nights playing and then quite often doing the same thing all over again the following day. I also didn't want to be fifty years old and find myself wondering if I could have made it as a professional musician and being bitter old bugger because of it." A legend in his thirties, Paul Anderson - fiddler, composer, teacher - is the subject of two specially commissioned portraits, a life size one in Aberdeen Art Gallery and a study which is in the care of the National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.
Liz Donaldson, piano and accordion.
LIZ DONALDSON (Bethesda, MD) plays piano and accordion and has been playing for dancing for many years. She is known for her innovative back-up style incorporating exciting rhythms, textures, and harmony lines in her music. In addition to playing for Scottish, English and American contra dances, Liz teaches all these styles, and dances, too!
She is a member of Terpsichore, Waverley Station, and The New Hip Trio. Her Scottish Country Dance recordings include: Caledonian Muse, Terpsichore, Scottish Dance Music, Waverley Station: First Stop! Memories of Scottish Weekend ('98) and More Memories of Scottish Weekend ('02), as well as her most recent CD English Echoes: English Country Dance Favorites. Liz has two books of Scottish tune medleys and Rain in the Desert, a collection of her own compositions.
Liz has taught and played at numerous dance weekends and music workshops including Scottish Weekend (MD/PA/WV), Pinewoods (MA), and Asilomar (CA). Her travels have taken her to Great Britain, Canada, France and Japan. She has performed with Terpsichore at the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage.
For more information see Liz's website at lizdonaldson.com. Photo by Ken Graham
Dan Emery, piper.
DAN EMERY (Fort Washington, PA). Dan has been the designated piper at Scottish Weekend since the first session at Buffalo Gap in 1989, and has been the piper at Pinewoods many times. As well as the highland pipes, Dan plays the small pipes. In addition he enjoys playing the flute, fiddle and cittern (like a big mandolin!) just for fun.
When not piping, Dan is a fine Scottish country dancer and is an architect in real life.
Earl Gaddis, fiddle and viola.
EARL GADDIS (Plainwell, MI) is a full-time dance musician, having played fiddle and viola for a mixture of English, Scottish, American, and international dancing for well over 40 years. He plays for dance camps, workshops, balls and other dance events throughout the United States and abroad. Earl is a member of Bare Necessities, which has released
about a dozen recordings of English Country Dance music so far, and of Woodlark (with Karen Axelrod and Chris Rua), and he has recorded with a number of other musicians as well. He lives in great contentment on ten acres of woods in Plainwell, Michigan with his wife Sherry Brodock.
Ralph Gordon, cello and bass.
RALPH GORDON (Charlestown, WV) is a classically trained bassist and cellist educated at West Virginia University and the Manhattan School of Music. He played for many years with innovative folk band Trapezoid, and his skills span a wide range of musical styles from chamber music to big band swing. The Charleston Post Courier remarked, "His playing is more sophisticated and technically accomplished than the next ten string players of any sort and he uses his instruments to subtly ground, stabilize, and inspire the rest of the ensemble as they pursue their experimentations."
Ralph is in great demand in the Washington, DC area as a freelance artist and a session musician. He can be heard on more than sixty recordings, including Scottish, English country, contradance, hoedown, folk, bluegrass, klezmer, blues, swing, jazz combos, and big band styles. Ralph has played for over ten years with Terpsichore, and has worked extensively on revitalizing Scottish folk cello style.
David Knight, fiddle.
DAVID KNIGHT (Washington, DC) has been instigating dance up and down the East Coast and beyond since 1991, primarily in the Scottish, American, English, and Irish dance traditions. He also veers regularly into composition, performance, and recording. He has been featured on three recordings - Waverley Station: First Stop!, More Memories of Scottish
Weekend, and most recently Ellen Gozion: Awake, Awake. His most recent tunes are collected in The Art Of..., his second collection. He plays most frequently with Thistle House, Waverley Station, and the Evil Twins. Visit David's website at music.davidknight.us.
Adam Oleksa, fiddle
ADAM OLESKA (Ambler, PA)(Tacoma, WA) is a classically-trained violinist who began Scottish fiddling as a student at Swarthmore College. These days, you can find him playing music pretty much every evening, whether it's as a class musician for the folk dance clubs at Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr College, or Eastern University, or as part of a band playing Scottish, English, or contra music for various dances in Philadelphia and the surrounding environs. Adam is also a pit orchestra member with Narberth Community Theater. He collects and obsesses over all things violin, and hopes to get around to building one on his own one of these days.
Melissa Running, piano
MELISSA RUNNING (Silver Spring, MD) started playing piano for dancing in 1999, when she was recruited to play for the Swarthmore College folk dance class. She's been playing for English and Scottish country dancing ever since, with some occasional forays into contra and the recent acquisition of the nyckelharpa, a Swedish folk instrument. She dances all of the styles she plays for and more. In her other life, she is a librarian and writer for the Math Forum @ Drexel, an online K-12 math education center.
Marty Taylor, Concertina & Whistles
MARTY TAYLOR (Baltimore, MD) has been a staple in the Baltimore-DC dance community for over twenty years. She plays for Scottish country dance, English country dance, American contradance, and vintage and couples dances. Her breathtaking whistle and recorder playing lifts the dancers off the floor -- her concertina playing adds soul and drive. You can hear Marty on the first Scottish Weekend CD, Memories of Scottish Weekend, and also on the Gadsby's Tavern Museum English country dance CD, Stepping Out in the 18th Century.
Dave Wiesler, piano and guitar.
DAVE WIESLER (Newark, DE) is pleased to return to Scottish Weekend for the thirteenth consecutive year. Dave is a skilled pianist and avid Scottish Country dancer and enjoys the chance to participate in both at Scottish Weekend. In addition to his Scottish Dance music, he plays regularly for contra dance, English Country Dance, couple dancing, concerts,
and has substantial studio experience.
He has been on staff at Pinewoods, Augusta, Ashokan, Buffalo Gap, and Sierra Swing, Timber Ridge, and Boston Harbor, and has performed at the Kennedy Center and at the Smithsonian. His music has taken him to Hawaii, Canada, England, Scotland and the Galapagos Islands. Check out his book of original melodies, DaveTunes, and his CDs, including Cracks and Shadows and two Scottish dance recordings Many Happy Returns with Hanneke Cassel, and Heather Hills with Mara Shea. You can also find out more about Dave on his website at
davewiesler.com.
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