MUSICIANS
The Musicians for 2024 are:
Friday Welcome Dance
David Mostardi
Caroline McCaskey
Saturday Kim McGarrity Memorial Ball
Thistle House
David Courret-Knight
Dave Wiesler
Dan Emery
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.
David Mostardi, Berkeley, California
When David was a sophomore in high school, the State of California, in a remarkable display of multi-culturalism, changed its PE regulations to allow such innovative athletic pursuits as International folk dancing. Not missing a beat, David—along with everyone else in the drama group—signed up for folk dancing. He continued folk dancing at UC Berkeley, where in 1980 he was invited to join the Westwind International Folk Ensemble. After only a few weeks, David shifted from the dance floor to Westwind’s orchestra, and he has been playing for Scottish, English, and International dance ever since: chiefly on accordion, but with occasional cameos on hammered dulcimer and guitar-like instruments. He has also performed with the Savina Women’s Folk Choir, Łowiczanie Polish Folk Dance Ensemble, Red Thistle Dancers, Zagora dance band, and for thirty-one years was the accordionist for Fiddlesticks & Ivory. David has been privileged to perform in such varied locales as Yosemite Valley, Santa Catalina Island, Waikiki, South Africa, and a pleasure boat sailing the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. At ceilidhs, he can often be seen playing ragtime piano or Bulgarian kopanitsas. Freshly retired from a career in computing, David lives in Berkeley with his wife Arlene Baxter and their cat Hana.
David Courret-Knight, Washington, DC
David Knight, also known as David Courret-Knight, has been instigating dance up and down the East Coast of the United States and beyond since 1991, primarily fiddling in the Scottish, American, and English dance traditions. He also has been known to compose, perform, and record. It is his passion to cause people to crave to dance.
He has been featured on five recordings – “Delaware Valley Gold” (2022), “Thistle House Live!” (2013), “Ellen Gozion: Awake, Awake” (2004), “More Memories of Scottish Weekend” (2003), and “Waverley Station: First Stop!” (2003). He has produced three collections of his original tunes – “The Call” (2017), “Fleeting” (2000) and “The Art Of…” (2003) – featuring original waltzes, jigs, marches, airs, reels, and Strathspeys (now bundled as “The Art of the Fleeting Call.”
In addition to playing solo and freelance with other musicians of traditions and beyond, David plays with Callithump! featuring Glyn Collinson on guitar and vocals and Andrew Marcus on accordion (contra and couples dance music); The Evil Twins with Laurie Fisher on piano, drums, and fiddle (contra, English Country Dance, Scottish Country Dance, and couples dance music); Green Light Karma with Andrew Marcus on accordion and Dave Wiesler on guitar and piano (contra and couples dance music); The Gyrations with Liz Donaldson on piano and Carrie Rose on flute and piccolo (contra and couples dance music); The High Drive with Paul Oorts on mandolin, cittern, and concertina, and Dave Wiesler on guitar and piano (contra and couples dance music); Thistle House with Dan Emery on flute and pipes and Dave Wiesler on piano (Scottish Country Dance); Waverley Station with Ralph Gordon on bass and cello and Liz Donaldson on piano (English Country Dance, Scottish Country Dance, and contra, couples dance music); and Wyndream with Janet Muse on piano and Edith Coakley Stowe on fiddle and viola (couples dance music).
David has placed in regional Scottish fiddle performance and composition competitions, qualifying him to compete at the US National Scottish Fiddling Championships in 1997. In 1998, he composed and performed the score for the American premier of David Harrower’s Knives in Hens, produced by Quantum Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and selected as the Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s 1998 Play of the Year.
A native of South Carolina, David lives in the District of Columbia with his husband Sebastien Courret-Knight and their dogs Electra and Marie-Sophie. While not fiddling, he is frequently found working at the Internal Revenue Service.
For information on upcoming gigs and products, see http://music.davidknight.us.
Dave Wiesler, Newark, Delaware
Pianist Dave Wiesler (Newark, DE) began dancing and playing Scottish country dancing three decades ago. Since then he has become highly regarded for his strong rhythmic drive, his technical skills, his orchestral imagination, and his deep knowledge of the genre. Dave is at home in a huge range of other styles of music and folk dance, ranging from English country dance, contra dance, swing and blues, and vintage couples dancing all the way to Viennese waltz and choir accompaniment. He has played at festivals and camps across the country, as well as in Canada, Scotland, and England, and he has composed hundreds of tunes, as well as song parodies, classical pieces, and choral arrangements. Dave’s many recordings include SCD albums with Thistle House, Mara Shea, Hanneke Cassel, the Scottish Weekend ensemble, and most recently the Delaware Valley Gold recording, which he also engineered and produced.
Dan Emery, Ardentown, Delaware
Dan was lured into piping for RSCDS at his very first Scottish Pinewoods session in 1986 and has served as duty piper for the Scottish sessions for many years. He has been the duty piper at ESC session at Pinewoods and Scottish Weekend. He is one of the few pipers in the world to play regularly for RSCDS dances. His favorite band to play with is Thistle House with Dave Wiesler and David Knight. He also plays in various pick-up bands in the Delaware valley. As well as the Highland pipes, Dan plays the Scottish small pipes, Border pipes and wooden flute. He is also an enthusiastic fiddler of middling skill.