Teacher & Musician Bios 2017

Chandi McCracken, Teacher

Chandi McCracken started Highland dancing at the age of 5 and loved joining in the ceilidh dances led by her grandfather. During graduate school she joined the Portland Branch of the RSCDS in 2006 to help ease her homesickness. After moving back to Minnesota in 2007 and joining the Twin Cities branch she started teacher training in part to help her father continue the McCracken-led ceilidh dancing around the Twin Cities. She completed her full RSCDS teaching certificate in 2011 in Minneapolis where she still teaches and calls ceilidhs.

Chandi has attended Pinewoods Dance Camp, was awarded the Bob Blackie Scholarship at the 2012 Teachers Association of Canada Summer School, and taught at the 2013 Ottawa Dance workshop. She also performs Scottish Step and Highland dancing, and loves Cape Breton Step and Swing dancing in between playing volleyball, softball and travelling. Most of all, Chandi enjoys sharing her family’s heritage and dancing with people from around the world.

Terpsichore: Elke Baker, Fiddle & Liz Donaldson, Piano

Elke Baker, winner of the 1995 U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship, and highly-regarded pianist Liz Donaldson have played together as TERPSICHORE since 1992. Named for the Greek Muse of Dance, Terpsichore has performed for enthusiastic listeners and dancers all over the U.S. and abroad. Caledonian Muse is their latest Scottish Country Dance recording and includes Ralph Gordon on cello and bass. Elke and Liz play as a duo on their 1993 CD, Terpsichore: Scottish Dance Music, which has become an indispensable classic of the genre. In addition to being a premier Scottish country dance band, Terpsichore plays regularly for English, contra, and other dances and concerts.

Concert artist Elke Baker has performed all over North America and in places as far-flung as Japan, West Africa, and Scotland, as well at the Kennedy Center. She brings a scholar's depth of knowledge and an extremely engaging manner to her performances, as well as an intimate knowledge of just what makes people want to dance. In addition to Caledonian Muse and the Terpsichore CD, Elke has released two concert recordings to an enthusiastic reception. The Washington Post praised recent release Glenelg for "the rhythmic energy and deep emotions that Baker generates with her bow. Baker's fiddle nearly throws off sparks," while Celtic Beat called Over the Border "a CD of rare delight, precise technical skill, and fulness of soul," and it was featured in the soundtrack of The Boyhood of John Muir, nationally broadcast on PBS television.

Pianist Liz Donaldson is nationally known for her profound understanding and expert playing of traditional dance music. A full-time musician who has played for dancing for many years, Liz is known for her innovative back-up style incorporating exciting rhythms, textures, and harmony lines. Liz plays and teaches many styles of dance music, including Scottish, English, American contra and square dance. She was a pianist-presenter at the Smithsonian Institution's exhibit on the history of the piano, "Piano 300." Liz plays with many traditional folk music bands, and in addition to Caledonian Muse and the Terpsichore CD, has recorded and produced several other albums of dance music, including English Echoes: English Country Dance Favorites, Waverley Station: First Stop! and Memories and More Memories of Scottish Weekend--live, large ensemble recordings that have been enthusiastically received by the dance community. Liz has played and taught music from coast to coast in the U.S. as well as in Ireland, England, France, Scotland and Japan.

Terpsichore photo courtesy of Ken Graham