Terry's Music Page


Terry Traub

I play a lot of music in a lot of styles. In fact it's probably not possible to capture all the styles and arrangements with which I have been involved. It's not to boast; it's simply that when you play for international folk dances you will end up playing folk styles from just about every country on the globe. For six years I performed regularly with the Mandala Folk Dance Ensemble, the late great collective that travelled all over the Northeast USA and occasionally as far away as Hungary.

In recent years, however, I have focused on Scottish country dance music and the heritage Scottish music of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada. Being Canadian born myself, I have enjoyed going down East to study the music and dance of this charming island. The people are great, the seafood is fresh, and the fiddle music is out of this world.

I have also learned something about my own heritage of eastern European Jewish music. For a while I played pretty regularly with a Klezmer music trio around Boston. Today I'm a free-lancer who works with a variety of musicians around Boston.

My primary instrument is the piano, followed by the accordion, violin, mandolin, a bit of guitar, tenor banjo, mandola, trumpet, and recorder. I own an oboe and took some lessons on it, but my lifestyle so far has not accommodated the tremendous amount of time this instrument requires.

I have played many types of events ranging from Scottish ceilidhs (dance and music parties), country dances, weddings Jewish and Scottish, concerts, fund raisers, dance performances, and good old fashioned jam sessions. There's nothing I like more than playing for dancing. It's the most participative art form there is; everyone in the hall is either making music or moving to it. It's what we humans have evolved to do and our modern, passive TV audience society is an aberration that does more harm to us than good. Get out and dance!

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