MUSICIANS
The Musicians for 2025 are:
Friday Welcome Dance
Andy Embrie
Caroline McCaskey
Saturday Kim McGarrity Memorial Ball
Flindrikin:
Lisa Doyle -- Fiddle
Carol Vines -- Cello
Gary Thomas -- Piano
Ron Wallace -- Recorder
Piper: Ethan Bailey
Caroline McCaskey
A native daughter of the genre-bending West Coast music scene, Caroline McCaskey is equally at home in the traditional, improvisational, and classical music worlds. In demand as a teacher and performer throughout North America and author of the AltStrings Fiddle Method, she holds degrees in music composition and performance, as well as Suzuki teaching certification in violin and cello. Caroline is a fiddler for the dance bands Tartan Suite, Reel of Seven and Greenwich Mean Time. She also performs regularly with Boston-based guitarist and banjo player Larry Unger, and with cellist Daniel Delaney as Secret Oaks, a jazz- and folk-inspired string duo. Caroline is the 2019 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion and a two-time International Musical Saw Champion. She also runs AltStringsAcademy.com, a learning community for amateur adult string players who are ready to build their technique, style, and musicianship skills.
Andy Imbrie
Andy has had the good fortune to accompany some of today’s leading Celtic fiddle talent, including Judi Nicolson, Deby Benton Grosjean, Elizabeth Dequine, Neil Ewart, Calum MacKinnon, Ryan McKasson, Hanneke Cassel, Laura Risk, and David Knight. He leads the “Reel of Seven” Scottish dance band, which released their fourth CD “The Magic of Summer School” (a compilation of dances recorded during their fabulous week at the New Zealand Summer School) in 2016 to wide acclaim. Their earlier CDs include “Dance for Joy” (2009), “Dance for Joy Encore!” (2012), and “Gotta Dance!” (2015), (www.reelofseven.com). Andy and the Reel of Seven have just returned from Calgary where they were delighted to be the staff musicians for TAC Summer School 2019.
Andy began studying classical piano as a child, and started playing for dances with the encouragement of Kim McGarrity and Barbara McOwen. He plays regularly for Scottish Country Dancing, ceilidh dancing, and contra dances throughout the US and Canada, and has been on music staff for several tours, including three to New Zealand and one to Scotland, Orkney, and the Shetland Islands. He has also been on staff at Pinewoods and was honored to have been invited to teach piano accompaniment at the Boston Harbor Fiddle School and the Valley of the Moon Scottish fiddling school for several years.
Andy is married to Sherryl Fawx (also a dancer and musician); they live in Santa Clara, California. In 2021, he retired from his position as Engineering Fellow at a major aerospace company where he was a specialist in simulation, guidance, and control of flight vehicles.
Flindrikin is:
Lisa Doyle
Lisa Doyle is a violinist and fiddler with years of experience in music performance and education. She grew up in England and after attending the University of Bristol she made California her home.
As a fiddle player, Lisa has studied with Alasdair Fraser and other world renowned musicians in California, Wisconsin, Boston, Scotland and Norway. She has played for weekly RSCDS classes for the past 10 years, and for dances up and down the west coast and beyond as a member of the Scottish dance band Flindrikin with Ron Wallace and
Gary Thomas. In 2019 she travelled to Europe with Flindrikin, performing at dance festivals and Highland Games, and playing for classes in Prague.
While she enjoys exploring a range of musical genres, Lisa is most comfortable in the Scottish tradition. She is passionate aboutencouraging others to participate - as musicians, dancers, listeners or in any way that brings them joy!
Carol Vines
Carol has been playing cello in Sonoma County, California, for over 30 years, including local orchestras, chamber music, and lots of musical theater. In the last ten years, Carol has had the great pleasure of exploring more traditional forms of music (Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, and American folk music), attending several of Alasdair Fraser’s fiddle camps, and playing with the San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers. Carol has also had the great privilege of playing with the Scottish dance band Flindrikin for the last few years, playing for workshops and balls, and just enjoying the wonderful community of Scottish dancers.
Gary Thomas
What started out in 1989 as an afternoon of filling up time playing chords for our fiddler at a workshop, ended up as a new venture into accompanying Scottish Dance musicians on a weekly basis. The original boom-chick, however, has developed over the years into something more pleasing for the ears, and my fingers are still exploring new paths in making music. A recent trip to Europe found me playing for a Viennese Scottish dance class, followed by a Folk Festival in Klatovy and a week-long course and performance in Prague, both in the Czech Republic.
When not at the keyboard, I’m usually teaching classes, and have done so since receiving my Full Certificate in 1981. I have taught workshops in several states as well as several provinces in Canada. Other dance classes include English Country Dance and Vintage (ballroom dances ranging from early 1800’s to early 1900’s).
Numerous Scottish dances as well as tunes have been added to my repetoire, and these can be found in “The Ladyslipper Collection” and “From the Redwood Forest”, co-produced with Ron Wallace, as well as “Dunsmuir Dances”.
And when my fingers are not busy on the keyboard or teaching or composing, they are kneading someone’s body in my new career as a Certified Massage Therapist.
Ron Wallace
Some of my earliest memories include watching my parents performing Scottish dance at a Burns Night celebration in Mapleton, MN, where my mother grew up. The organization was started by her uncle and over the years twelve of my relatives were involved. Many of the Scots who settled 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 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. 55 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 endeavor 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!
Ethan Bailey
Ethan Bailey started SCD in 2009, thus starting his journey into several Scottish pastimes: highland dance in 2017, along with fiddling and bagpiping, teaching tentatively starting in 2019, but more seriously in 2023 gaining his preliminary certificate at TAC summer school the next year. He started piping competitively in 2019, achieving grade 3 at the end of 2023, and has piped for several grand marches, dances and performances, memorials, graduations, a wedding, a parade, and a birthday. He is working toward being a grade 1 piper, able to play for the most demanding dances.
When Ethan's not competing, playing for class, or dancing, he works as a gardener for around 20 clients.