Katherine Shearman

I grew up attending Scottish gatherings, joining in with the ceilidh dancing from a young age. I began Highland Dancing at the age of 11, competing in Canada, USA, England, and Scotland. In fall 2005, I accompanied my mum to my first Scottish Country Dance class and was hooked immediately. I love the lively music, the ever-changing formations and patterns, and how SCD can cross language and cultural divides. At any level of dance, SCD offers challenges in an environment of fun and friendship.

I earned my Teacher’s Certificate in 2011 and teach weekly at the Vancouver (Canada) Branch. I perform with the Vancouver Branch Demonstration Team and recently became their team manager. I have taught day and weekend workshops in British Columbia, Alberta, North West Territories, California and Washington state, and ball walk-through classes at TAC Summer School.  I also enjoy highland and ladies step dancing.

Musicians:

Elizabeth Anderson

Elizabeth Anderson plays the fiddle and teaches around the greater Boston area where she lives. Since attending her first fiddle camp as a teenager, Elizabeth has been immersed in Scottish music and the community of musicians and dancers she has met through it. Through performing, she seeks to connect more deeply with Scottish traditional music, and through teaching, to share that connection with others.

Elizabeth is the 2020 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion and the winner of the 2016 Perth All-Scotland Fiddle Championship. Elizabeth’s early training came through a combination of Classical violin lessons and learning at fiddle workshops and camps. A formative moment came in the fall of 2016, when she spent a semester in Glasgow to study under fiddler Douglas Lawrence and experience the music culture of Scotland firsthand.  She holds music education degrees from Berklee College of Music (B.M. 2017) and Ithaca College (M.M. 2022).

An active performer, Elizabeth plays with her brother as Scottish fiddle/cello duo “Elizabeth and Ben Anderson.” The duo has sold out performances at iconic Boston venues such as The Burren and Club Passim and has been met with acclaim in concerts as far away as Scotland and France. The duo released their first album Over the Isles in 2018.

In the Scottish music and dance community, Elizabeth is a well-known presence. Monday nights will find her at Scottish dance class and Tuesday nights, at the local Scottish session. She is the director of Chauncy Fiddle Camp, a summer day camp for young fiddlers, which has been in operation since 2014. She is also a frequent staff member at camps and workshops such as Maine Fiddle Camp, Pinewoods Dance Camp, and the Boston Scottish Fiddle Club.

 Elizabeth teaches orchestra full time in Walpole, MA, where she directs seven grade-level orchestras and teaches small group lessons. She also founded the extracurricular Walpole Pops Orchestra with the mission of bringing string music into the Walpole community.  She has presented workshops on teaching fiddle music in the public school orchestra at the NAfME All Eastern Conference and in sessions throughout Massachusetts.

Susie Petrov

Susie Petrov started dancing at the Monday night dance in Washington, DC in the summer of 1973 and went dancing every Tuesday with her high school classmates that next school year. In those days, you had to attend each Branch ball in order to hear the Scottish musicians who came south from Toronto: Stan Hamilton, Bobby Brown and their ensembles. You also had to research repertoire in the Library of Congress in person! After finishing her piano studies at the Peabody Conservatory, Susie Petrov launched herself into her passion of researching, performing and teaching Scottish dance and music. She teaches regular classes for the Boston Branch and has run successful RSCDS Teaching Certificate training courses over the years. Susie had the opportunity to teach young Scots through 1990s as a tutor for the Feis na Gael summer music courses in the north and west of Scotland; in Golspie, on the islands of Lewis and Tiree. Here was a chance to combine her day job of music teacher with her night and summer work performing Scottish music! In 2000, Susie was a guest lecturer at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire in Glasgow. Susie performs Scottish music for dances, Highland balls, ceilidhs and concerts with several groups of colleagues including the Parcel of Rogues with Glenfiddich fiddle champion, Calum Pasqua. She is thrilled to join forces with Elizabeth and Ben Anderson, who are part of the local Boston talented fiddling scene. Susie has fourteen recordings and two collections of Scottish music to her publication credit. Find her at: www.susiepetrov.com and on Facebook.

Ben Anderson

Ben Anderson has been playing violin for over 20 years, and cello for over 15. After starting on classical, he fell in love with Scottish music during his years attending the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School. Since then, he has continued learning at iconic camps such as the Pure Dead Brilliant fiddle weekend and the Boston States Fiddle Camp. Today, he most commonly performs with his sister Elizabeth, who together have performed from across New England to Scotland and France. He also frequently plays for dances, including Pinewoods Scottish Session and the Pinewoods Benefit Ball. As his day job, he works in software engineering.

Catherine Miller

Catherine Miller holds a degree in violin performance from the University of Iowa. She has been a member of the University of Iowa Baroque Chamber Orchestra, the University of Iowa Steel Drum Band, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, and the Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra in Gloucester, and has performed in many other groups including the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, the Handel Society of Dartmouth, the New England Philharmonic, and Symphony New Hampshire. An interest in folk music and dancing led her to start playing fiddle for various folk dances with the Barn Owl Band and Cecil’s Harp in Iowa in 2005. Now in Boston, she plays regularly for English and Scottish country dances and contra dances in the New England area. As a Scottish dance musician she has played for RSCDS (Royal Scottish Country Dance Society) balls and workshops around the United States and Canada. In the summers she is a regular musician at the Pinewoods Dance Camp in Plymouth, MA for Scottish, English, International, and American dance sessions and has been a musician for the Dance Flurry organization, which features English and contra dances. She is a member of several Boston- and New England-based bands, including the Sharpies, Saucy Bess, Dusty Miller, Wisp of Thistle, and Jump Start. Catherine also works as a Digital Librarian at the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester, MA.