Scottish country dancers from near and far, and RSCDS Twin Cities Branch members current and past are cordially invited to our Semicentennial Ball on 26 April 2025 at 301 on Main, Minneapolis, featuring fiddler Alastair McC (Ayr, Scotland), pianist Tom Pixton (Boston), and pipes and whistles by Dick Hensold (St. Paul).
Schedule | Program | Silent Auction | Musician Info
Tickets and Registration
Coming soon!
You are encouraged to bring your own water bottle to use during the dance so we can reduce the number of cups we use.
Schedule
| SATURDAY, 26 APRIL | |
| 1-2:30pm | Ball practice @ 301 on Main, Minneapolis |
| 5:00pm | Doors open @ 301 on Main, Minneapolis |
| 5:30pm | Dinner |
| 7pm | Grand march and dancing and silent auction |
| Following the ball | After-glow party @ TBA Please bring food to share |
| SUNDAY, 27 APRIL | |
| 10:00am | Brunch @ TBA Please bring food to share |
| 1:00pm | Concert by Alistair McC and Tom Pixton |
2025 Grand Ball Program
PDF/print-friendly instructions
| Name | Type | Shape | Publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Machine without Horses | J32 | 3/4L | Rutherford: RSCDS XII |
| Seann Triubhas Willichan | S32 | 2/4L | Wilson: RSCDS XXVII |
| The Mason's Apron | R32 | 3/4L | Border |
| Andrew and Gordon's Jig | J32 | 4/4L | Goldring Graded 2 |
| Autumn Wind | S32 | 3/4L | Friedman-Shedlov |
| Kilt Swing | R32 | 3/4L | Berg Gray |
Interval | |||
| Laggan Bay | J32 | 3/4L | Forbes: Craigievar 2 |
| Fifty and Fabulous | M64 | 3/3L | Anderson: Paris Book 2 |
| Les Remparts de Séville | J32 | 3/4L | Latour: RSCDS 50 |
| Dumbarton Drums | R32 | 3/4L | Wilson: RSCDS V |
| Bonnie Ina Campbell | S32 | 3/4L | Will: RSCDS XXXVII |
| The Montgomeries' Rant | R32 | 3/4L | Castle Menzies (18C): RSCDS X |
Interval | |||
| Mrs Stewart's Jig | J32 | 3/4L | Ligtmans: RSCDS XXXV |
| Culla Bay | S32 | 4S | Dix: RSCDS XLI |
| Maggie and Caitlin | R32 | 3/4L | McKernan: 8 x 32 |
| The Dundee City Police Jig | J32 | 5/5L | Mitchell: Whetherly 2 |
| The Minister on the Loch | S32 | 3/3L | Goldring: Magazine |
| Caberfei | R32 | 3/4L | 18th Cent. |
Silent Auction
We will hold a silent auction to benefit the ball and the RSCDS Twin Cities Branch. If you have an item or service to donate, please contact (TBA)
About the Musicians
Alistair McC hails from Ayr in Scotland and is one of the country’s best known fiddle performers, teachers and composers with many appearances on radio and television. Past winner of many fiddle championships, Alistair is fiddle instructor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and has tutored many of the new generation of rising stars.
Alistair’s trio featuring Aaron Jones of Old Blind Dogs, and former Capercaillie whistle wizard Marc Duff, regularly tours and Alistair is also a long standing member of the well known ceilidh band Coila and the Iain Cathcart Scottish Dance Band. He has also collaborated with many of Celtic music’s best known musicians.
To date Alistair has performed in over twenty countries, including Australia, New Zealand, China, Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, the Middle East and throughout Europe and North America.
Alistair has directed several fiddle groups and ensembles including the dynamic young group ‘Innovation’ and was formerly a soloist with the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra. His playing style is driving and precise, described by the Living Tradition as “fresh, fiery and full of fun”.
Tom Pixton plays traditional music for International, Balkan, and Scottish dance events. He has worked with many of today’s most accomplished dance teachers and musicians as accordionist, pianist, band leader, music arranger, singer, and CD producer.
Tom provides music and music leadership for dance camps, workshops, and special events in the US and Canada. He is band leader annually for June Camp (Illinois), Mainewoods (Maine), and Stockton Folkdance Camp (California). He has worked with Royal Scottish Country Dance Society branches in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, New Haven, and New York, Cambridge Revels, the Folk Arts Center of New England, and many organizations around the US and Canada.
Tom has studied accordion with Petur Ralchev, Koliu Kolev, Bobby Brown, Steve Riley, and Bois Sec Ardoin, and voice with Tatiana Srbinska. He has produced CDs with Flying Tomatoes, BiCoastal Band, and Pinewoods Band. His Scottish recordings include Scottish in Salem (with Lissa Schneckenberger), Saucy Bess: The Piper’s Weird (with Catherine Miller, and Mike MacNintch), and Live From C Sharp, a two-CD set recorded live at Scottish Pinewoods 2010, with an all-star cast.
Tom publishes the Pinewoods International Collection, a 400-page book of folk dance tunes and songs from around the world. The book has become widely known as a major source of dance music and as a reference volume.
Tom was a harpsichord player and maker between 1977 and 1984, and studied with Gustav Leonhardt and Louis Bagger. He performed throughout the US, made a variety of recordings, and built 18 harpsichords. In 1991, he decided that the accordion was way more fun.
Tom graduated from Brandeis University in 1976 with a degree in music. When not playing music, Tom works as a freelance web strategist in the higher education and non-profit space
Piper, teacher, workshop leader and composer, Dick Hensold is the leading Northumbrian smallpiper in North America, and for the past 20 years has performed and taught in England, Scotland, Japan, Canada, and across the United States.
Based in St Paul, MN, he is a full-time musician, passionately presenting the traditional music of Scotland, Cape Breton Island, and Northumberland, as well as Nordic folk music, early music, and traditional Cambodian music. He is also an active composer, studio musician and theater musician, and his solo Northumbrian smallpipes CD Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes was released in 2007.
Dick is a bagpipe specialist that came to the pipes after a solid early music training at Oberlin Conservatory, so he combines a love for traditional music and a rigorous emphasis on musicianship and expression. His primary interest has been in using the pipes in groups with other instruments. He was invited to join a band based in Northern Wisconsin, Way Up North, and played with them from 1993-7. Two members of Way Up North went on to form Piper’s Crow, a quartet which features Northumbrian smallpipes and several other bagpipes, in 1998. Piper’s Crow released a CD in 2006, and has been fairly busy ever since. Along the way he also played in several duos, with singer/guitarist Jeff Cahill, fiddler/accordionist Dick Rees, singer/guitarist Tom Draughon (of Way Up North), guitarist Karen Mueller (of Piper’s Crow), and piper Laura MacKenzie (also of Piper’s Crow). More recently Dick has been collaborating with guitarist Patsy O’Brien, with whom he released the CD The Welcome Companion in 2022.