July 5-11, 2026
2026 Musicans
Julie Gorka
Julie Gorka is a musician with a wide range of musical interests. She plays Scottish, contra dance, historic, English, and Irish music on piano, harp and fiddle. She’s known for her lively piano back-up style, with driving rhythms and interesting harmonies. She judges around the country for the national Piano Guild, and enjoys working folk music styles into her classical piano students’ musical education.
Julie has made several recordings,including A Sheep at the Wheel (Scottish and English music) and a waltz CD, In 3/4 Time, with fiddler Mara Shea, and help from Walt Robinson, Ted Ehrhard and Dean Herington.
Mara Shea
Mara Shea has been happily playing for dancers since the 1990s—mostly English, Scottish, and contra—and is frequently heard at many Scottish dance events, weekends, and concerts in the US, Scotland, and Canada. She has been on the music staff at the Boston Highland Ball, Pinewoods, TAC Summer School, Blue Ridge Scottish Week, Pawling, Midwest Scottish Weekend, and John C. Campbell Folk School, among others, and has played for many Scottish country dance workshops and balls. With pianist Dean Herington, Mara led musicians’ workshops for the Scottish country dance group in Lisbon, Portugal. She has many recordings with her contra dance band, The Elftones, as well as with other wonderful musicians such as Dave Wiesler (Heather Hills), Rhiannon Giddens (All the Pretty Horses), and Julie Gorka (In 3⁄4 Time, and several Scottish dance recordings). Mara decided to take a year off from teaching in 2018-19 and earned an MLitt in ethnology and folklore at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
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Mara lives in Elon, North Carolina, where she teaches Celtic fiddle online, does a lot of gardening, and works as an occasional freelance writer and editor. For more on Mara, and to listen to some of her music, visit her website: marashea.com.
Tom Pixton
Tom Pixton has been active as a Scottish dance musician for more than thirty years. He wandered into the Cambridge Class Monday night dance (Boston area) in the early 90s with his accordion and has been with them ever since.
Tom has worked with many of today’s most accomplished dance teachers and musicians as accordionist, pianist, band leader, music arranger, and CD producer. He has provided bands, music, and music leadership for RSCDS branches in Boston, New Haven, Atlanta, Chicago, Twin Cities, and New York. He has served as Music Director for the Boston Branch Pinewoods Sessions five times, most recently in 2022 and 2023.
In addition, he has regular collaborations with the Cambridge Revels, June Camp (Illinois), August Camp (New Mexico), Stockton Folkdance Camp (California, San Antonio Folkdance Festival (Texas, Mainewoods (Maine), and the Folk Arts Center of New England.
His Scottish Recordings include Scottish in Salem (2003), Live from C sharp (2011), and Saucy Bess (2014).