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Gregor Borland
Gregor Borland has the good fortune of being the only current performing fiddler to have been taught by both Hector MacAndrew (whose grandfather was a pupil of James MacIntosh, the last pupil of the famous Niel Gow) and Donald Riddell, who was the leader of the Highland Strathspey and Reel Society and a prolific teacher in the Inverness area. Gregor has also had much success in competitions, winning the Daily Record Junior Golden Fiddle Award in 1978 and then going on to win another eight Scottish Fiddle Championships throughout Scotland over the next five years. Gregor currently is living in Spain with his family where he has started a traditional Scottish Fiddle School in the beautiful town of Biar, north of Alicante. He is also a fully qualified Piano Tuner and has recently started making fiddles, one of which he now faithfully plays on tour.
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Carl MacKenzie
Carl MacKenzie is a regular performer at dances, concerts and workshops across Cape Breton and has also performed throughout Canada, Ireland, Scotland and the United States. A traditional fiddler from Washabuck, Victoria County, he has a vast repertoire, which he prefers to learn from books. Carl has composed over fifty tunes and his playing is expressive of the musical magic and soul that sets him apart from so many other musicians. Carl has just released his 11th recording, Highland Classic. Carl, like many Cape Breton musicians, comes from a very musical family. The MacKenzies of Washabuck are steeped in the culture of their Highland ancestry. Carl has long been an exponent of the type of Cape Breton fiddling that has come to be known as the "Washabuck style." Now retired from Cape Breton University where he taught engineering, Carl's fiddling career has not slowed down and he is considered a dean of Cape Breton fiddling.
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Laura Cortese
Fiddler, singer, songwriter and stepdancer Laura Cortese lights up the stage with a radiating smile, dazzling musicianship and uninhibited delight. The fiery combination of her Irish and Italian heritage delivers a unique blend of passion and humor. On her 5 solo CDs she couples the groove and polish of urban music with universal themes of the old world. Cortese's Irish American grandmother first handed her a fiddle at the age of 4. Eight years later, she discovered folk music in what seems like an unlikely place, the bustling metropolis of her hometown San Francisco. She attended Valley of the Moon as a teen, and in 1999 moved to Boston to attend Berklee College of Music. She has played in several bands including fiddle trio Halali and the Boston Urban Ceilidh Band, and founded the Boston Celtic Music Festival. She is an inspiring and stimulating fiddle teacher and loves passing on some of the great old tunes.
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Hanneke Cassel
Native of Port Orford, Oregon, Hanneke Cassel started playing classical violin when she was 8-years old. Soon she took up fiddling with Portland-based Carol Ann Wheeler, and began competing in contests throughout the Northwest. She is the 1997 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and earned a scholarship to study with Alasdair Fraser and Buddy MacMaster on the Isle of Skye. Hanneke holds a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Berklee College of Music, and she has performed and taught across the U.S., Scotland, Sweden, China, New Zealand, France, England, and Austria. In addition to her solo act, Hanneke has played for the Cathie Ryan Band, and is a member of Boston-based fiddle bands Childsplay and Halali. She has released several solo CDs and is also known as a creative composer.
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Janine Randall
Janine Randall is a first generation American descended from the Camerons, MacNeils, and Walkers of Mabou and Margaree Harbours along the western side of Cape Breton Island. Coming from a well known musical family, her father Johnny Muise played 'clappers' and her mother Mary was a well respected Scottish Cape Breton pianist living in the Boston area. Janine's love of the music and culture inspired her to become the founder and Director of the Ceilidh Trail School of Celtic Music in Inverness, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. An accomplished academic speaker, writer, piano teacher and promoter of Cape Breton culture, including presentations and workshops at the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention held at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. She is also a regular accompanist at Cape Breton dances and concerts throughout New England, Canada, the United States and Scotland.
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Lezlie Webster
Lezlie Webster has over 25 years experience promoting and teaching the traditions of Scottish culture specializing in music and dance. She is a Fellow of the Scottish Dance Teachers' Alliance, a Graduate and Examiner of the Institute of Piping in Scotland, and an Adjudicator of Piping for the Eastern US Pipe Band Association. Lezlie is also a prize-winning piping competitor in Piobreachead and a renowned teacher of Highland dance. A native of Canada, Lezlie is now settled in New Hampshire where she established the N.H. School of Scottish Arts in Manchester in 1998. She currently teaches at Phillips Exeter Academy and St Paul's School in NH. Lezlie loves playing with fiddlers and will be teaching courses in beginning, intermediate and advanced pipes and smallpipes.
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Marcie Van Cleave
Marcie Van Cleave, Executive Director of the Folk Arts Center of New England since 1988, has been teaching and leading traditional dances in the New England area with her characteristic high energy and humor. She regularly leads international folk dance sessions at the New England Folk Festival and recently taught folk dance as part the Longy School's Dalcroze Eurhythmics certification program. Marcie is experienced in directing programs involving dancers of all ages; she has organized the CDS Pinewoods Labor Day Session and the FAC sessions at Pinewoods and Oktoberfest. She is now an avid fiddle student, augmenting her long musical experience as a recorder player.
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Carolyn Ramm
Carolyn Ramm began studying violin and viola at the age of 10, and also plays piano, guitar, mandolin and Celtic harp. She has attended three seasons of the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School and serves on the board of directors of its sponsor, the Folk Arts Center of New England. In her professional life Carolyn has over 20 years’ experience as an attorney, including many years in in-house legal roles with high-technology companies. Her practice emphasizes corporate finance and intellectual property licensing. Carolyn holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law.
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Barbara McOwen
Barbara McOwen began playing fiddle for Scottish dancing in 1971, the same year she gained her B.A. in Music from the University of California, Berkeley. She subsequently drew upon source books and recordings, and her knowledge of Scottish country and highland dancing, when forming the Berkeley Scottish Players and Tullochgorum, ground-breaking dance bands on the west and east coasts. She is co-founder of the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club and the N.H. Strathspey & Reel Society, helped establish live music at Scottish Pinewoods sessions as its first Music Director, and has a full-time schedule of private Scottish fiddle students of all ages and levels. She is currently writing a book on the fiddle music of Highland fiddler Angus Grant, to be published in 2008.
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