- Elke Baker
- David Courret-Knight
- Liz Donaldson
- Dan Emery
- Tim MacDonald
- Jane Roberts
- Dave Wiesler
Elke Baker, fiddle
ELKE BAKER - MUSIC DIRECTOR (Glenelg, MD), is a veteran dance musician and concert performer. Since discovering Scottish
country dancing while in college, Elke Baker (fiddle, music director) has performed at dance and music events across North
America and around the world, including TAC Summer School, Pinewoods, Scottish Weekend, Asilomar, IB Event in Italy, Scotland,
England, Ireland, Japan, West Africa, and the upcoming New Zealand Summer School. 1995 U.S. National Scottish fiddle Champion,
Elke taught at the Washington Conservatory of Music, as Artist-in-Residence at Montgomery College, as a panelist at Harvard
University, and has taught monthly workshops for the Potomac Valley Scottish Fiddle Club for more than 30 years. She has played
concerts at venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Honolulu Academy of Arts, and countless festivals. Elke's
recordings include three SCD albums with band Terpsichore; Better Days, a waltz and couple dance album featuring four ensembles;
On a Cold Winter’s Day with Ken Kolodner; and the world premiere recording of the pibroch The Fingerlock on fiddle. Playing music
for dancers is one of her very favorite things…although dancing runs a close second.
Instagram @elkebakerfiddlemusic
www.elkebaker.com
David Courret-Knight, fiddle
DAVID COURRET-KNIGHT (Washington, DC). David has been instigating dance up and down the East Coast and beyond since 1991, primarily fiddling in the Scottish,
American, and English dance traditions with bands such as Thistle House and Waverley Station. He also has been known to compose (Fleeting and
The Art of …), perform, and record (Waverley Station: First Stop!,” More Memories of Scottish Weekend, and Ellen Gozion: Awake, Awake).
David has placed in regional Scottish fiddle performance and composition competitions, qualifying him to compete at the US National
Scottish Fiddling Championships in 1997. A native of South Carolina, David lives in the District of Columbia, where he works for the
Internal Revenue Service. For information on upcoming gigs and products, see http://music.davidknight.us.
Liz Donaldson, piano and accordion
LIZ DONALDSON (Bethesda, MD). LIZ DONALDSON (Bethesda, MD) is a full-time musician and dance caller, and has been
playing piano 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 and square dances, Liz teaches all these styles, and
dances, too!
She is a member of Terpsichore, Waverley Station, The New Hipsters, Gyrations, The Treble
Makers, and Elegant Echoes. Liz’s newest recordings are "English Echoes II: More English
Country Dance Favorites" with Becky Ross, Colleen Reed, and Bruce Edwards, and another
Scottish Country Dance CD "A Dancer’s Best Friend" with Elke Baker and Ralph Gordon. “A
Dancer’s Best Friend” is a welcome addition to “Caledonian Muse” and "Terpsichore, Scottish
Dance Music.” Liz also joins David Knight and Ralph Gordon on "Waverley Station: First
Stop!" She is the Artistic Director and pianist on the hot live Scottish Country Dance recordings
"Memories of Scottish Weekend (‘98) and "More Memories of Scottish Weekend ('02).
Liz has published two books of Scottish tunes: "Scottish Dance Class Tunes" (revised in 2021)
and "Scottish Tune Medleys" which have become mainstays for Scottish Dance Player’s libraries
worldwide. She has also composed many wonderful tunes, including a host of waltzes.
Liz has taught and played at numerous dance weekends and music workshops including Scottish
Weekend, Pinewoods, Asilomar, and TAC Summer School.. Her travels have taken her across the
US as well as to Great Britain, Canada, France, and Japan. Liz performed for the Smithsonian
Institution's Piano 300 exhibition in ’00 and has performed with Terpsichore at the Kennedy
Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington, DC. In 2017 she was awarded the Scroll of Honour
from the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society for her contributions to music and dance.
In addition to playing and teaching music, Liz is a caller of Scottish Ceilidh, English Country,
and Community dancing. She particularly enjoys working with dancers of all ages and
experience levels.
Website: www.lizdonaldson.com. Photo by Ken Graham.
Dan Emery, pipes and
flute
DAN EMERY (Fort Washington, PA) has been the designated piper at Scottish Weekend since the first session at Buffalo Gap in 1989. He has
been the piper at Pinewoods Scottish sessions many times since 1986, where he got his first taste of piping for RSCDS. As well as the
Highland pipes, Dan plays the Scottish small pipes, Border pipes and flute with the band Thistle House. He can also be heard playing all
those instruments (and occasionally fiddle) at socials and parties around the Delaware valley. When not piping, Dan is a fine Scottish
country dancer, retired highland dancer.
Tim MacDonald, fiddle
TIM MACDONALD Praised for his “thrilling” fiddling (Chicago Classical Review), Tim has been fiddling, dancing, and fiddling for dancing
for almost two decades. Originally from the US, he's played for concerts and Scottish country dance balls throughout the country and for
Pinewoods's Scottish Sessions and ESCape (English-Scottish-Contra) Week. He moved to Edinburgh in 2021 to get a master's degree by researching
Scottish fiddle history, and he has played for four SCD weekends in France and Sweden, a lecture-concert at Winter School, the RSCDS's
Centenary Weekend, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and other dance and music events throughout Scotland and the US with Muriel Johnstone,
Susie Petrov, Andy Imbrie, Liz Donaldson, Dave Wiesler, and many others.
Learn more at www.tsmacdonald.com.
Jane Roberts, cello
JANE ROBERTS Jane has been playing Scottish music since 2000, when she first encountered it at Susie Petrov’s
workshop. Once discovered, she was hooked. She sought guidance from Natalie Haas, Pete Clark, George Meikle, and took every opportunity
to play for classes and dances. She’s attended Boston Harbor Fiddle School weeks as well as many RSCDS St Andrews Summer School music
courses. Jane keeps busy as the music organizer for the Delaware Valley Branch and can be found playing for weekly RSCDS dance classes
and at DelVal events and dances, often with her bandmates from Mind The Gap.
Dave Wiesler, piano and guitar
DAVE WIESLER
(Newark, DE) has been playing for Scottish country dancing since 1993, dancing it since 1995, and on staff at Scottish Weekend
every year since 1996. Dave is highly regarded for his deep knowledge and spirited piano playing of Scottish dance music, and he now performs
regularly with his band Thistle House and with fiddlers Hanneke Cassel and Mara Shea, among others. He has played at concerts and dance and
music camps across the country, and his music has taken him to Hawaii, Canada, England, Scotland and the Galapagos Islands. He appears on
nearly 20 recordings, many featuring his own compositions. He is also a capable guitarist and singer, a writer of silly ceilidh songs, and a
stay-home dad of two young boys.
Dave is at home in a huge range of other styles of music and folk dance besides Scottish music --
including contra dance, English country dance, swing, vintage dancing, Viennese waltz, and couple dancing. He has been on staff at Pinewoods,
Augusta, Ashokan, Buffalo Gap, Sierra Swing, Timber Ridge, and the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School, and has performed at the Kennedy
Center and at the Smithsonian. 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. Note also that Dave has a new Scottish dance cd out:
Delaware Valley Gold, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Delaware Valley branch of the RSCDS
available here. You can also find out more about Dave
on his website
at davewiesler.com
