David Nisbet
Accordionist
David is from the Scottish Borders, where he grew up learning the accordion under the tuition of the late Bill Sharp. His early experiences of traditional music were at the local Accordion and Fiddle Clubs, concerts and ceilidhs where he developed his experience of playing for dancers.
At competitions, he has won many sections around the country across various musical genres, including five 1sts at the All Scotland Accordion Championships in Perth in 1998. He is a former UK Open Duet Champion and represented the UK at the Frosini Grand Prix European Final, held in Stockholm.
Since then, David has performed at events and festivals across Europe, Scandinavia and the United States, as well as many in his home country. He has also recorded for BBC Scotland's 'Take the Floor', Border Television's Hogmanay programmes and appeared on BBC 2's 'Leviathan'.
Currently, David is convenor of Edinburgh Youth Gaitherin, an organisation that promotes traditional music to young people in the City of Edinburgh and surrounding area.
Dougie Beck
Pipes and Whistle
Dougie Beck was taught piping by the late Pipe Major Norman Gillies while at school in Ullapool, and has since extended his musical armoury to include whistles and smallpipes. A fluent Gaelic-speaker, Dougie now works full-time as Fèisean nan Gàidheal's drama officer, co-ordinating Gaelic-medium and Gaelic-orientated drama in schools across Scotland, and overseeing the Gaelic theatre-in-education company Meanbh-chuileag, which he co-founded in 2000.
He is also a member of Leum-luath, the world's only Gaelic-speaking bagpipe quartet, which draw much of its material from the Gaelic song tradition.
Music has taken Dougie all over Scotland, from a showcase concert at Celtic Connections to the Orkney Folk Festival, and from west coast ceilidhs to gigs in the Pleasance in Edinburgh. Outside Scotland, Dougie has performed in several European countries, and in 1997 was asked to play in Ireland at events commemorating 1400 years since the death of St Columba.
On top of his musical abilities, Dougie is adept at anything that involves the spoken word, and has even been known to give a song once in a while!
