P.O. Box 6761
 Chesterfield, MO 63006-6761


 In the belief that music and the arts are key to connecting cultures and understanding our roots, Scottish Partnership for Arts and Education is dedicated to supporting Scottish Traditional Arts and Artists and to providing cultural experiences and educational opportunities in Scottish Traditional Arts in St. Louis area schools. Please contact us to find out more.

2010 SPAE Artists Biographies


Brian McNeill, First Head of the Scottish Music Program at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, Scotland, is a virtuoso on fiddle, viola, mandolin, cittern, bouzouki, guitar, bass, concertina, and hurdy-gurdy, and the importance of his songwriting has long been recognized. Brian was the founder of the Battlefield Band in 1969, one of Scotland's best known folk ensembles. He has numerous recordings both solo and with other leading Scottish traditional musicians. The curriculum he set up at RSAMD teaches as well as guides the students to be full-time professionals in the art of Scottish traditional music. www.brianmcneil.co.uk

 

Caroline Pugh brings her refreshing, offbeat songs to audiences around the UK and the USA. She combines her musical skill and knowledge of folklore with natural sensitivity and humour to captivate audiences. Combining new composition, improvisation, folklore and traditional song, Caroline's voice is equally at home in a folk club, art gallery or theatre. She also works in residence, leads workshops and col-laborates with visual and perform-ance artists. She is working on a Master of Music in folk song and improvisation from Newcastle University with funding from the prestigious Arts and Humanities Re-search Council, and her first degree was in Scottish Music from the RSAMD. She teaches voice perform-ance courses at Queens University Belfast and North-umbria University in the UK.  www.myspace.com/carolinepugh

Sara Ann Dawodu comes from Auchmithie, Scotland. She gradu-ated from the RSAMD with High-est Honors in June, 2008. this will be her third year to teach in St. Louis. She has also taught in the UK, Denmark, Germany and Canada. She is a free-lance fiddler in Scotland and plays regularly in the duo A Little Bit of Somethin (with Heather Downie), The Shed Inspectors, The Ballachulish Hellhounds, and with Brian McNeill and Dominique Dodge. She is equally comfortable in Scottish traditional music and American folk music such as blue-grass and old time. While still at the RSAMD, she spent a semester at East Tennessee Un. studying these genre. She has been influenced by many music genres, plays fiddle, piano and banjo and sings and composes. At 23 she is one of the up and coming Scottish talents in tradi-tional music. www.myspace.com/SaraAnnCull

Dominique Dodge is a harper and singer from northern New Hampshire. Dominique has been singing for as long as she can remem-ber and she expresses songs from the Scots, Gaelic, and Appalachian traditions with depth and clarity. In 2005, Dominique earned a BA First Class Honours Degree in Scottish Music from the RSAMD. She has performed in the USA, UK, Denmark as well as for HRH the Prince of Wales and at the opening of the Scottish Parlia-ment Building. She released a solo album in 2006 featuring Gaelic and Scots songs and rhythmic dance tunes from Scotland and Cape Breton as well as a few of her own composi-tions. She has taught for the Ohio Scottish Arts School, the NH School of Scottish Arts, and the Gaelic College in Nova Scotia. www.dominiquedodge.net

Ed Miller holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from the University of Texas. He is one of the finest singers to come out of the Scottish Folk Revival and brings his love of Scotland to every per-formance. Ed is one of the most popular folk artists on the Highland Games circuit in North Amer-ica. He hosts a folk music program “Folkways” on Na-tional Public Radio station, KUT-FM, Austin, TX and has recorded extensively. Ed is an instruc-tor at Swannanoa Gathering Summer School, Warren Wil-son College, N. Carolina; Rocky Mountain Fid-dle Camp CO; and Alasdair Fraser's Valley of the Moon Fiddle Camp, CA. www.songsofscotland.com