Lifetime Contribution Award - Country Dance & Song Society

Current LCA Recipients:

2025: John Roberts
John Roberts (1944-2025) receives the Lifetime Contribution Award in recognition of his contributions as a singer, song collector, historian, accompanist, teacher, and mentor. His award will be presented posthumously on May 10, 2025, in Schenectady, NY.

For the past six decades, John fostered a wonderful set of communities through his music and song, including the English folk music scene, the morris dance world, the Irish music world, the sea music world, CDSS camps at Pinewoods, and at folk festivals from coast to coast.

Supported by concertina, banjo, guitar, or melodeon, John’s solo performances offered a great balance of wit, historical knowledge, and musicianship—and always a warm invitation to join in. When John sang, he had the remarkable ability to transport listeners to the place and time of the song, a notable talent that engaged the audience with ease and confidence.

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2025: Tony Parkes
Tony Parkes (1949–2024) receives the Lifetime Contribution Award in recognition of his contributions as a caller of contras and squares for more than 50 years, choreographer, musician, band leader, author, workshop leader, dance historian, and dance organizer. His award will be presented posthumously on November 22, 2025, in Concord, MA.

Tony Parkes touched the lives of innumerable dancers, musicians, and callers throughout his career. He was the author of Contra Dance Calling: A Basic Text, the comprehensive book on calling, and more recently Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century, and his legacy will live on in those foundational volumes for decades to come. But Tony also embodied the consummate caller and musician, appearing weekly at the Concord (MA) Scout House for more than 20 years with the band Yankee Ingenuity, which he co-founded.

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2025: David Surette
David Surette (1963–2021) receives the Lifetime Contribution Award in recognition of his contributions as an inspiring music performer, teacher, scholar, and mentor. His award will be presented posthumously October 19, 2025, in Concord, NH.

David will be remembered as a talented, kind, and generous person who fostered the love of participatory folk music in all those around him. He taught and mentored many young musicians and was an extraordinary talent on mandolin, guitar, and bouzouki. David toured with numerous contra dance bands, including Fresh Fish and Airdance. Each of these bands was arguably the finest in the country at their time and left a lasting impact on the evolution of contra dance music.

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Nominations for Future Lifetime Contribution Awards

Do you know someone who has made a long-term and exceptional contribution to the mission of CDSS?

Have they led the way in preserving, promoting, and/or creating within the living traditions that CDSS stewards?
Has their contribution benefited people in a broad geographical area?
Has their contribution impacted more than one generation?
Have they worked in conjunction with CDSS, CDSS affiliates, or complementary organizations?

If the answer is “yes” to all of these, then you may know a future recipient of the CDSS Lifetime Contribution Award (LCA).

Examples of a long-term and exceptional contribution include:

Increasing the quality of what we do by inspiration, instruction, or excellent example
Bringing what we do to new communities
Expanding the repertoire of dance, music, and/or song through scholarship or original composition
Working behind the scenes or enabling others to make these contributions

Nominations for the 2026 Lifetime Contribution Award closed March 1. The recipient will be announced in late 2025.

New this year: living and posthumous nominations are combined, and all nominations use the same form. Submissions for people who have passed away are welcome anytime nominations are open (there’s no minimum or maximum time limit since the nominee died for you to make the nomination).

We consider nominations from previous years each time we select a recipient. If you’ve nominated someone before, feel free to fill out the form again if you want to add extra info. You can also get others to nominate that person too—more support for someone who’s been nominated before is always a good thing!