Person Sylvia Miskoe 1135

Music play an important part in Silvia's life from early on. With about 10 years of age she learned the piano. In college time she started playing the accordion and was playing for square and contra dancing.

She joined the NH Scottish Dancers in 1954. At that time it was common to dance to recordings from Scotland. Even in the early 1970 when there was a growing number of good musicians around, Scottish dancers still resisted hiring locals, preferring their recordings from Scotland. There was the opinion prevailing that to play SCD music you needed to be a born Scot. Finally, Silvia and others were able to convince the Branch to hire Angus Mackinnon, a well known Scottish band leader, to give a workshop about how to play for Scottish Country Dancing.

After that, four musicians, Silvia (accordion), Cal Howard (bass), Allan Chertok (drums), and Ralph Jones (flute), founded the first SCD band on East Coast, which was later named The White Cockade.

Please also read Silvia's interview at the Maine Fiddle Camp for lots of interesting information.