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45th TAC Summer School
23-30 July 2017

University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, BC, Canada

Come to Vancouver and enjoy dancing to the music of Lisa Scott, Deby Benton Grosjean, Ian Muir, Judi Nicolson, Mary Ross, and Don Wood for classes, socials, and ball.

Summer School 2017   Staff Musicians

Lisa Scott
(Music Director)
Portland, Oregon, USA

Lisa S M2017

A native of Portland, Oregon, Lisa Scott is an accomplished pianist and teacher.  She began her studies early and continued on to earn a Bachelor of Music from the Lewis and Clark School of Music and to study the art of accompaniment at the University of Southern California and in New York City.  In her early twenties, she began Scottish Country dancing and soon earned her Preliminary Teaching Certificate.  This led to 30 years of playing Scottish music for classes, dances, workshops, balls, and teacher certificate classes throughout North America and in Scotland and Japan.  Lisa's sensitivity to dance rhythms and her lyrical style make her music an inspiration for dancers.

   

Deby Benton Grosjean
Santa Cruz, California,
USA

Deby BG M2017


Deby Benton Grosjean is a resplendent fiddler, successfully melding the virtuosity of classical technique with the spontaneity of Celtic folk. Since starting her formal classical training at age eight, Deby has received awards in national and regional fiddle championships and honors in college for music major. She is a multifaceted musician expanding the dimensions as a workshop clinician, conductor, orchestrator and producer. Deby has been playing for Scottish country dancers since the mid-1990’s, and she has previously been a staff musician at TAC Summer Schools in 2009 and 2012; she is equally excited to perform at TAC 2017!  Deby has been a soloist at RSCDS-SF’s Asilomar Dance Retreat for many years, and she is on all three Reel of Seven live recordings and many other recordings. Deby’s performances span New Zealand, Taiwan, Canada, Ireland, Scotland and throughout the USA including Alaska and her hometown of Santa Cruz, California. She’s opened for Scotland’s singer Jim Malcom, England’s Maddy Prior, Ireland’s author Frank McCourt. Deby’s film score credits include Ken Burns’ Not For Ourselves Alone. Connection Magazine notes, “Her recordings will capture your heart and dance your feet.”

   

Ian Muir
Scotland, Prestwick, UK

ian-muir-ss2016



Ian Muir has been involved in Scottish Dance Music for 37 years, having started his career playing lead accordion with Kenny Thomson and the Wardlaw Scottish Dance Band at the age of 16.  He continued with Kenny until forming his eponymously named Scottish Dance Band in 1984 when he auditioned and made his debut on BBC Radio Scotland's "Take the Floor" programme in an outside broadcast from The Gantock Hotel, Gourock.  From then on, Ian has broadcast many times for "Take the Floor".

As well as performing on "Take the Floor" with his band, Ian was delighted to be asked to present the 2014 Summer Series of 6 programmes.   He was also joined in the studio and via phone links by renowned purveyors of traditional music from all over the country.  Ian was again a guest presenter for the 2015 summer season.

September 2016 marked Ian's 20th year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly RSAMD), where he is senior accordion tutor and also the dance music coordinator.  Ian played at several events in Canada in 2016, the Edmonton Caledonian Branch weekend in February and TAC TCW and Summer School in July-August.

   

Judi Nicolson
Katy, Texas, USA 

judiss

Scottish fiddler Judi Nicolson is a consummate performer; her dynamic fiddling, engaging stage presence, and deep understanding of Scotland's music have created a demand for her solo appearances, concerts, and dances throughout the UK and Americas with a variety of groups.

Although classically trained from an early age, her passion was to play Traditional Scottish Fiddle Music. By the age of fifteen, she had won three major Open Scottish Fiddle Championships.  Judi went on to play at various music venues throughout the UK, both as a soloist and with some of the finest Scottish Dance Bands. Over the years, Judi has recorded numerous sessions for radio, appeared on television and in theatre. She has recorded 2 solo albums and 14 albums with various musicians/bands over the years. She also published a book of her own compositions.

Judi qualified as a violin teacher for both classical and traditional fiddle in Scotland. In Summer 2008 Judi, husband Ian, and their two children relocated to Katy, Texas, USA where Judi continues to teach students and plays for concerts and for Scottish Country dances, workshops, and balls.

   

Mary Ross
Victoria, BC, Canada

Mary Ross M2017

Music and dancing has been a major part of Mary Ross’s life since the age of five, beginning with highland dancing for twenty years and then on to Scottish Country Dancing. Music studies started with the piano, but she quickly changed instruments after hearing Scottish Music played on the accordion at a White Heather Concert.

Mary is a member of the Van Isle Scottish Country Dancers and the RSCDS Vancouver Branch. Since 1991 she has enjoyed providing music for Scottish Country Dances, Ceilidhs, workshops, youth weekends, and TAC summer schools in the Pacific Northwest. She was the first recipient of the TAC Bobby Brown Memorial Apprenticeship at TAC Summer School 2015 held in Farmville, Virginia.

Mary appreciates the continued support of the dance clubs in the Pacific Northwest and also the new opportunities of participating at The Thistle Summer School in North Carolina and The Canmore Alberta Weekend in 2016.

Mary thanks Lisa Scott for the invitation to participate at TAC Summer School 2017 in Vancouver, Canada and looks forward to sharing the stage with a great line up of musicians.
   

Don Wood
Aurora, Ontario, Canada 

donwss

Don Wood began playing piano as a young boy in Nova Scotia, accompanying his father who played fiddle and button box. His exposure to all the old reels, jigs, and strathspeys, admittedly with a "maritime" flavour, would stand him in good stead later in life.

After playing guitar for several local Rock and R&B bands Don was lured away in 1966 to play bass with Stan Hamilton's Flying Scotsmen, where he met his lifelong friend Bobby Brown. Don became the original pianist for the Scottish Accent, and he has made many recordings with the Scottish Accent as well as fiddlers Alasdair Fraser, Graham Townsend, and Rudy Meeks.

Don has made brief sojourns into blues, country, rock, folk, and gospel music but he is never far away from his Scottish musical roots. He continues to play both piano and bass with Scotch Mist and the Torridon Scottish Dance Band across Canada and the United States.