Teacher - Ron Wallace

Musician - Ian Muir

Some of my earliest memories include watching my parents performing Scottish dance at a Burns Night celebration in Mapleton, Minnesota, where my mother grew up. Her uncle started the organization, and twelve of my relatives were involved over the years. Many of the Scots who settled in this area arrived before the SCDS was formed. Their dance style hadn’t evolved with the times as it did in Scotland. For example, dance pumps as we know them today were worn for performance, but not social dancing.

This was a very fertile ground to “grow up with it” and produced dreams of teaching it. When my parents bought a restaurant, and my mother couldn’t continue teaching, I had the opportunity to take over. So, at a very early age, that’s exactly what I did. 54 years later, I reflect on how little I knew then and how little I know now! The more I learn, the more I want to know.

In 1981, teaching Scottish dance and music became a full-time endeavour with classes in highland, step dance, Cape Breton step, country dance, and piping. Teaching these forms has taken me around the world and provided many an adventure. What better life than to share traditions, old and new, with all who love to dance!

Ian Muir has been playing for Scottish dancing in all its forms for the past 40 years.  Scottish Country Dancing, Ceilidh, and Old-Time dancing have been the mainstay of his long music career.  As well as playing for dancing, he has performed solo in Scottish Variety theatres throughout the country and has toured extensively in Europe and the Middle East.  He formed his own Scottish dance band in 1984 and has been a regular contributor on BBC Radio Scotland’s ‘Take the Floor’ programme as a bandleader He was the programme’s presenter for two summer seasons.

He combines playing duties with his tutorial role as Principal Accordion Tutor in the Scottish Music Department at the prestigious Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, a post he has held for 23 years.

Since 2012 Ian has been on staff at four TAC Summer School events in Portland, Oregon, Bishops’ University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, UBC in Vancouver, and last year in Calgary, Edmonton.  He played at the Vancouver Branch’s 50th-anniversary celebrations, the San Francisco Branch’s Asilomar weekend in California in 2013 and 2022, and the Edmonton, Alberta weekend school.

Recent studio recordings include RSCDS Book 51, a commission by Bill Little for part of his Carlingwork Collection, and a recent collaboration with Judi Nicolson, Kathy Fraser-Collins, and Fred Collins in the album “Fire Away!”