Biography

For over a decade Dave Wiesler has been building a national reputation for his rhythmic and innovative piano playing. At home in a huge range of styles, Dave plays for events ranging from studio work to concerts to dances of many flavors -- contra, swing, vintage, couple dance, English and Scottish country dance. He has given concerts at venues including the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, the Washington Folk-Life Festival, and the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and for two years he led popular performance tours on antique pianos for the Smithsonian Museum's Piano 300 Exhibit. Dave has played at festivals and camps across the country as well as in Canada, Scotland, and England. He is a prolific composer of tunes and songs, and is also a capable guitarist and singer. He lives in Newark, DE, with his wife and son and two beloved cats, Bonker and Ceilidh.

staff positions | teaching | concerts | personal

Noteworthy Music and Dance Staff Positions:

Dance and Music Camps

Pinewoods: English-American Week (1999,2001,2002,2005); Scottish sessions (1997,1998,2004,2005,2006); English-Scottish session (1997,1998,2003,2005)
Ogontz: CDSS Family Week (2004)
Buffalo Gap: Dance Week (2000)
Ashokan Fiddle and Dance: Northern Week (2000)
Augusta Dance Week (2002)
Sierra Swing (2002)

Dance Vacations

Ken McFarland Tour: Scottish Dancing in French Chateaux (2005)
Ken McFarland Tour: Scottish Dancing in Scottish Castles (1999,2004)
Ken McFarland Tour: Contra dancing in Scotland (2004)
Ken McFarland Tour: Dancing Through the Galapagos (2002)
Ken McFarland Tour: Scottish Dancing and English Manors (2001)

Predominantly Contra dance weekends:

Vernal's (northern Florida)
New Mexico FolkMADS (2006)
Butterball (2005)
Portland, OR, Suttle Lake Weekend at Camp Namanu (2003)
Ann Arbor Dawn Dance Weekend (2003)
Ski-Dance Weekends (1993-2007)
Almost Heaven (2000,2003,2004,2005)
Michigan Dance Heritage Spring Weekend (2000,2001)
Buffalo Gap Dance Weekend (1998,2000,2001,2006)
Spring Dance Romance [Triangle Country Dancers of NC] (2000)
Victoria's Revenge (2000,2005)
Still Dancing (2000)
Asheville Summer Soirée (1998,1999)
Charleston Bug Stomp (1999)
Baltimore Mid-Winter Ball (1998,1999)
Charlottesville Fall Festival (1998,2006)
Alta Sierra (1998)
Spring Dance Weekend at Circle Lodge (1997)
Greensboro December Dance Delight (1996)
Frederick MD Wintersong Festival (1996)

Predominantly English Country Dance Events:

Little Rock Twelth Night Ball (2005,2006,2007)
London, ON spring weekend (2004)
Washington Spring Ball (2003)
Ann Arbor Dawn Dance Weekend (2003)
Spring Dance Weekend at Circle Lodge (2002,2003,2005)
George Washington Ball, Williamsburg (2000-2002)
Swarthmore English-Scottish Ball (1997,2002,2006)
Ski-Dance Weekends (1993-2001)
February Fling, Trenton, NJ (2001)
Jefferson Ball, Richmond (1997, 2000)
Baltimore Ball (1999)
Washington New Year's Ball (1996)
Richmond Ball (1994,1995)
Dover Ball (1995)

Predominantly Scottish Country Dance Events:

Flora MacDonald Ball (2006)
Dillard House SCD weekend (2006)
Little Rock Twelth Night Ball (2005,2006,2007)
Raleigh, NC, Valentines' Ball (2000,2004,2007)
New Haven Ball (1998,2004,2007)
Richmond 25th Anniversary Ball (2003,2004)
Boston Highland Ball (2003 welcome dance,2004 ball)
Chicago Burns Dance (2000,2003)
Charlottesville Burns Dances (1999-2007)
Capital Weekend, Washington, DC (1997, 1999-2006)
Tidewater Dance (2002)
Delaware Ball (1998,2002)
Scottish Weekend, Ramblewood/Timber Ridge (1996-2006)
Argyle Weekend, Arlington VA (1997-2003)
Delaware Valley Hogmanay (1997,2001,2003,2006)
Delaware Valley Spring Ball (2001,2006)
Vancouver Burns Dance (2001)
Hillsborough Highlands (2000)
Fort Worden Weekend (1997)
Dance Flurry Scottish dance (1997)
Swarthmore English-Scottish Ball (1997,2002,2006)
Long Island Fling (1996)
Albany Fall Frolic (1996)

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Music Teaching:

Private lessons

Basic to advanced folk piano technique, chords, and theory
Scottish, English, and Irish styling
Rhythmic and melodic variation and improvisation

Group music classes: These have included a Band Aid class, coordinated by Liz Donaldson; a week-long session on English Country Dance piano at Ashokan Northern Week 2000; a week-long session with pianists in the American Dance Musicians' class at English-American Week, Pinewoods 2001; various workshops and open band leading for Scottish, English, and contra dances; and several music classes during contra dance weekends on topics including:

Putting together contra dance sets and Scottish country dance sets.
Improvisation in dance music.
Playing in the idiom; regional and ethnic differences in backup styles.
Rhythmic and melodic variety in dance music.

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Selected Concerts:

Kennedy Center Millennium Stage concerts
Millennium Stage concerts are all archived on the Kennedy Center website

Jan 24, 2005, with Hanneke Cassel
Nov 12, 2004, with Cabaret Sauvignon
Nov 6, 2002, with Hanneke Cassel
May 16, 2002, with Cabaret Sauvignon
Nov 6, 2001, with Dave Wiesler ensemble, performing selections from "Cracks and Shadows"
Apr 13, 2001, with Karen Ashbrook and Paul Oorts, performing selections from "Celtic Cafe"

Solo Performances or with the Dave Wiesler Ensemble

Performance Tours: Piano 300 Exhibition, Smithsonian Museum of American History (2000-2001)
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (2001)
Institute of Musical Traditions (Takoma Park, MD), CD Release Concert for Cracks and Shadows (2001)

With Cabaret Sauvignon or Andrea Hoag

Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (2001, 2002, 2004)
Coolfont Foundation (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004)
Celtic Cafe Release Concerts, Birchmere and Ram's Head (2001)
FSGW and Dancing Planet (2000)
Fire and Water Release (1999)
FSGW house concert (1997)

With Laura Light and/or Avant Gardeners

CD Release concert for , Institute of Musical Traditions (DC area) (2006)
Annapolis, MD (2003)
Lancaster, PA (2003)
Fredericksburg,VA, Songwriter's Showcase (2002)
Acoustic Charlottesville (2001)
CD Release Concert for No Gravity (2001)
Dinner concerts and music, Papagallo Restaurant (2001)

With Hanneke Cassel

Silver Release concert (2006)
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage (2002, 2005)
Prism Coffee House, Charlottesville, VA (2003, 2005)
Some Melodious Sonnet Release Concert (2004)
Follen Church, Boston area (2003)
My Joy Release Concert, Johnny D's, Boston (2001)

With Elke Baker

Over the Border release concert (1997)
Blarney Star, NYC (1996)
Big Grey Concert Series (1996)
Honolulu Academy of Arts (1996)
Oatlands Celtic Festival (1996)
Minstrel Coffeehouse (1996)
Leesburg First Night (1995)
Music under the Dome, Baltimore (1995)

Other concerts

With Gigmeisters, Hill and Hollow Concert Series, Adirondack area (2006)
With Gigmeisters, Chameleon release concert, Institute of Musical Traditions (DC area) (2006)
With David Knight, Richmond Highland Games at Strawberry Hill (2001)
With Susan Brandt, Rockville Unitarian Church (2001)
With Laura and the Lava Lamps, Washington Folk-Life Festival (2000)
With Microchasm, Charlottesville Fall Festival (1998)

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Personal:

Photo of Dave with his fur hat (aka Ceilidh, the white cat).

I learned piano as a kid from my father, going through the first three grades of the John Thompson series at warp speed. After grade three my hand wasn't big enough to play most of the pieces, so my dad stalled, teaching me about chords and how to play by ear. That turned out to be a long-term diversion. I never went back to formal lessons, except sporadically, but kept on improvising and reading through classical and popular literature on my own.

During high school in North Carolina, I got interested in folk music and learned the guitar on a plastic-body instrument that made my fingers bleed. It had a seriously bowed neck, so I always capoed up five or six frets to keep it in tune. I picked up three-finger style banjo in college. That instrument (which I still own) was only slightly better than the guitar!

Music was very much an avocation until this millennium. Instead, I kept busy earning a Ph.D. in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Illinois, then working at IBM in San Jose, CA; the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, MD; as a visiting professor at the George Washington University in DC; then as a researcher in MRI and medical sensors at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. In March, 1999, I got married, quit my job at NIH, and moved down to Charlottesville, VA, where my wife lived. An intended short musical sabbatical became indefinite, as I concentrated on music pursuits and fixing up our house. In 2003 we moved to Newark, DE, and in 2005 I became a stay-home dad.

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