Laura Risk & Nicholas Williams

Laura Risk (fiddle) and Nicholas Williams (piano) of Quebec, Canada will be our musicians for the Friday night Social Dance at Asilomar Weekend.

"Laura Risk's fiddle is a revelation and achingly beautiful." - Ken Burns, Grammy-winning filmmaker. Now living in Montreal, Laura Risk originally hails from San Francisco where she learned her craft from master fiddler, Alasdair Fraser. Laura plays frequently for Scottish Country dancing across North America, performing with Muriel Johnstone, Susie Petrov, Hanneke Cassel, Dave Wiesler, and the band, Les Joueurs de Bon Accord! Her first solo CD, Celtic Dialogue, was one of The Boston Globe's 'Top 10 CDs of the Year.' In her latest recording, 2000 Miles, Laura teamed up with some of Quebec's top traditional musicians for an exciting new take on the repertoire of eighteenth and nineteenth century Scotland.

Nicholas Williams graduated with a degree in music in 1998 from York University, Toronto. Since then Nicholas has immersed himself in the traditional dance music of Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, and Quebec, playing Irish flute, piano, and accordion. He has performed for concerts and dances across North America and the U.K., and currently tours with the band Crowfoot. He recently released his second solo CD, 'The Whispering Woods', which features 14 of his own original compositions.

Laura and Nicholas are both members of the Scottish Country dance music band, Les Joueurs de Bon Accord. We're really looking forward to dancing to the music of Laura and Nicholas at Asilomar!