Ian Russell is the former Director of the Elphinstone Institute at the University of Aberdeen (1999–2014). This institute specialises in the ethnology and folklore of Northern Scotland. His current research is focused on the traditional culture of NE Scotland, including singing and instrumental traditions, and festivalisation. He edited Folk Music Journal (1980–1993) and was awarded the Coote Lake Research Medal by the Folklore Society in 1987. Since 1969 he has conducted extensive fieldwork into singing traditions in the English Pennines, especially Christmas carolling, and has published The Sheffield Book of Village Carols (2011, new edn 2018) and The Derbyshire Book of Village Carols (2012, new edn 2020). He is the founder and Director of the Festival of Village Carols, and the President of the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention, which has held meetings in St. John’s in Newfoundland, Derry/Donegal in Ireland, Cape Breton Island, and Aberdeen. One of his recent publications, co-edited with Catherine Ingram, is Taking Part in Music (Aberdeen University Press, 2013).