I started playing the fiddle at the age of 10 when my family moved to Tain, a small village in the Highlands of Scotland (probably most famous for Glenmorangie Whisky)!

During my teenage years, I started a Scottish dance band under the brilliant guidance of Ali McGregor and his Tain Scottish Dance Band. For over 30 years, I have played with several Scottish dance bands, including David Oswald, Colin Dewar, and Jim Lindsay, on gigs, broadcasts, and various recordings. Highlights of my career have included playing with the BBC house band at the National Mod, tutoring and leading the Musicians’ Course at the RSCDS Summer School, playing at the RSCDS Winter Schools in Pitlochry, and, most recently, playing at the RSCDS Australian Winter School.

I am a trained Mentor in Traditional Music Arts in Scotland and support various artists in the industry. I also volunteer as Secretary for the National Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs. My main job, however, is teaching the fiddle and other traditional instruments to both adults and children through the Feis movement across the Highlands of Scotland. I was also nominated for Tutor of the Year in the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards 2025.

I am looking forward to playing in Canada for the first time and working with amazing musicians and dancers from across the world!

Graham Berry - Aberdeen, Scotland

Graham Berry has played the piano since the age of 6.  He started playing with his father, Jim’s, band three years later and has since played with a number of well-known Scottish dance bands, including those of David Cunningham, James Coutts, and Gordon Shand.  Although he is now regularly seen at the piano playing for Scottish country dancing classes, he is primarily known as a band pianist.  In that capacity, he has made numerous recordings and frequently appears on BBC Radio Scotland’s Take the Floor programme.  Music has taken him all around Scotland and the UK, as well as further afield to various parts of Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Outside music, Graham is a scientist, now working with an electronics manufacturing company, and is also a keen astronomer when Scotland’s fickle weather allows!

David Oswald, Blairgowrie, Scotland

Originally from Blairgowrie in Perthshire, my musical journey beganat the young age of seven, under the guidance of my tutor Willie Gordon, but it was the sounds of the Wallochmor Ceilidh Band, Iain MacPhail SDB, and most notably from the early 1990s, Jim Lindsay’s Band, with their innovative arrangements, that inspired me to form my own band and perform at my first Scottish country dance in 1991.

I have regularly played for classes at RSCDS Summer and Winter Schools, international schools and a variety of weekly classes throughout Scotland. I have travelled extensively, bringing my distinctive style and deep love of Scottish music to dancers in Australia, Germany, Spain, and Ireland, to name but a few.

Recent highlights with my band include recording RSCDS Book 53 and the RSCDS Centenary Ball in 2023, held at the Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, with 400 members in attendance.

I am fortunate to be a good friend and musical colleague for over 18 years with Gillian Stevenson, this year’s TAC Music Director, and I look forward to being part of her team, bringing our music and, more importantly, fun and good humour, which we are both known for by dancers at home and abroad, to the TAC Summer School.

James MacQueen - University Heights, Ohio

Known for his infectious, toe-tapping tunes and brilliant sound, James MacQueen is in demand across North America for dance events. Growing up in the Scottish fiddle tradition, he has since branched out into the English and Contra dance styles. Well-versed in the traditional reels, jigs, and strathspeys of Scotland, he also composes his own tunes.

Dancing is an integral part of performing, and James notes that his success as a fiddler has a lot to do with his dancing. “The music and the dance of these traditions are inseparable. If you don’t understand the dancing, you won’t be able to play the music. The tunes take the dancers up off their feet, drive them forward, or ease them along. When you see how they move, you know how to shape the music. I grew up doing Scottish country dancing and am still an active dancer. Whenever I’m not sure just quite how to play a tune, I dance a few steps, and then I know.”

James has released three albums of dance music with the band StringFire, and a fourth album of Scottish fiddle tunes and original compositions with pianist Patti Cobb. In addition to his Scottish fiddling, James has earned a Masters in violin performance from University of Denver, and a Bachelor of Music in violin performance and composition from University of the Pacific. He currently teaches classical violin and Scottish fiddle in University Heights, Ohio.