Bagpipe News

Dear Friends,

I will teach a free tin whistle workshop for absolute beginners on
Sunday, March 12th from 12:45 to 1:45 PM at The Irish Arts Center, 553 W.
51st Street between 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan.

No previous musical training is necessary. Bring your own tin whistle in
the key of D or purchase one for $10 at the workshop.

To reserve a spot, call me at 212–247–3231 or e-mail me at
bill@pennywhistle.com. And please tell your friends!

The workshop will take place in the context of The Irish Art Center’s
Annual Pre-St. Patrick’s Open House. There will be many other wonderful
activities at the IAC on that day — free performances, classes, and a
film screening.

Some of the schedule for the day is still being worked out. To get a copy
of the finalized schedule, e-mail sydney@irishartscenter.org.

The tin whistle workshop is set for 12:45. I hope to see you there.

Sincerely,

Bill Ochs

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Web: www.pennywhistle.com
E-mail: bill@pennywhistle.com
Phone: 212.247.3231
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Welcome to another great show from PlanetPipe. John and Simon are in great form this week, and as usual, we have some fantastic music for you.

Our special guest is Richard Parkes O.B.E. A man who needs little introduction to the piping World, Richard is a fine solo piper, but of course is the reknowned Pipe Major of former World Pipe Band Champions the Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band. Look forward to a very interesting interview.

Gerry O’Connor

Rory Campbell

Jack Lee

Skyedance

The Cheiftains

Donald MacPherson

http://www.planetpipe.com/

All five years are in the PPOD Archive, and we have the Photo Gallery Forum where you can share your photos.

http://www.bobdunsire.com/pipingpod/bpwppod.htm

Babylon, New York - February 25, 2006 The first-ever CLASP (Competition League of Amateur Solo Pipers) contest to be held outside of the U.K. attracted a good entry of pipers. The event was managed by Margaret Houlihan of Glasgow, who administers the CLASP system at the National Piping Centre.

Read more on PiperandDrummer

Sean Somers, aged 27, of Calgary is making a mark for himself as a composer of playable and melodic light music, in addition to his accomplishments as a soloist and bandsman. He currently is a member of the Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax) Pipe Band, which he joined when he was living in Nova Scotia. He serves as that band’s “sound guy,” working with Pipe-Major Roderick MacLean and Bruce Gandy to create its distinctive presence.

Read more on PiperandDrummer

The Polkemmet Pipe Band of Whitburn, Scotland, says that it is “out of the red” after weathering a no-drummers situation that caused the band to reconsider its viability.

The band revealed that it now has five side drummers on the books, and is still actively recruiting members. The band says that it plans to compete in the 2006 season.

Read more on PiperandDrummer

NEW SHOW NOW UP - 17 FEBRUARY

Welcome to another great show from PlanetPipe. Simon and Alasdair are in
the presenter’s chairs this week, and we have some great music for you.

Our special guest is Andrew Douglas of the SFU band. Andrew has released
a solo album called ‘Expression’ and Simon has a chat to him about the album
and his piping in general.

We also have an exclusive PlanetPipe preview track from Karin Polwart’s
forthcoming album Scribbled in Chalk.

Matt Malloy

SFU

Karine Polwart

Andrew Douglas

Robbie Hannan

Murray Henderson

Metro Cup 2006 Results

Andrew Hayes of Ottawa won his first Metro Cup by winning the Pioabireachd event and finishing fifth in the Medley. Alen Tully of Ireland took the Medley section. In the amateur contests, Alex Gandy, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, was the overall winner.

Also playing in the Open events but not in the prizes were Dan Cole, Alasdair Gillies, Brian Meagher, Mike Rogers, Peter Skae, Scot Walker and Ian Whitelaw.

Duncan Bell did not attend due to the death of his mother the previous week.

All events were judged by Donald Lindsay, Bill Livingstone and James Stack.

2/1/2006 - Irish Piobaireachd Society contest
Dunn good at Irish Piobaireachd Society contest
Houlihan takes Former Winners

1/14/2006 - Winter Storm Gold Medal
Whitelaw wins Winter Storm Gold Medal
Todkill takes Silver, McWhirter wins drumming

The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts
of Canada

The College of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts has announced that the Governor-General of Canada, Her Excellency The Right Hounourable Michaëlle Jean, will be an official Patron.

In becoming a Patron, Jean said that she is “happy to lend her endorsement and conveyed her very best wishes for the continuing success of The College of Piping & Celtic Performing Arts of Canada,” according to a release from the College.

Read More on the PiperandDrummer Website

Feb 20 - BCPA 2006 Grand Aggregate Tour T-Shirt is now available. You can
order it via the Sporg online contest entry forms.

http://www.bcpipers.org/

Tour T-Shirt Order Form

The Jam Pack: World Music contains over 3,235 Apple Loops played by master musicians from nearly every corner of the globe and 42 software instruments.

If you have Apple’s (included in iLife ‘06) Garageband 3.0 and a Deger Bagpipe Chanter you are going to have lots of fun.

First off you will be able to reproduce your favorite bagpipe tunes into a digital format called midi. What makes this great is that you can lay down on track using the Deger chanter, copy the track and playback the piece using a different instrument voice. This allows you to create your multi instrument compositions quite easily. When your done with your work of art just save the selection as an mp3 and load it into your ipod.

If you were thinking about dropping $99 on this package, do yourself a favor a go out a buy it, you won’t regret it.

A complete listing of GarageBand Jam Pack: World Music software instruments and loops Bagpiper.Com

02/14/2006 The 2005 ASPD Aggregate Results have been posted on the results
page and may be downloaded in either PDF or MS-Word format.

http://www.aspd.ca/results/2005/2005AggregateResults.shtml

http://www.aspd.ca/results/

Annual Gathering - Note that the Easter Friday events and recital
will take place in the Academic Quadrangle at Simon Fraser University,
8888 University Drive Burnaby, BC. However, due to exams, the University
is not available on Easter Saturday. The Easter Saturday events, band contest
and ceilidh will now take place at Prince of Wales Secondary School, 2250
Eddington Drive, Vancouver, BC (westside of Vancouver).

http://www.bcpipers.org/events.html

Online Entry Form

The four-time World Champions Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band of Belfast has announced a three-year sponsorship deal with the Glasgow-based St. Kilda Group valued at £50,000.

The band, which will retain its name, said in a statement to Piper & Drummer Online, “Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band is thrilled to have secured such a significant level of investment for the band, and for the wider pipe band community. We are looking forward to working with the St Kilda Group and to have the opportunity to demonstrate to companies that serve the pipe band community, the value of investing within that community.”

Read more about this article Piper and Drummer

Agnew-Harrison Invitation Drumming Contest Order of Play by keith on Wednesday,
February 15 2006

Saturday, March 10, 2006
James Street Armouries, Hamilton, Ontario

The order of play for this popular annual event is now available in the
Upcoming Events section. Please visit this page for Contest times and details.
Look forward to seeing you there.

Niagara-Hamilton More Info

Ogeden Legion Pipe Band Spring Indoor Competition

Click here for more information. - http://www.olpb.ab.ca/

http://www.bcpipers.org/

Feb 12 - 2005/2006 Mini-Gathering top 3 for each grade have been posted.
See Results.
Results

Feb 12 - Complete results from yesterday’s Mini-Gathering and Pro Piping
KO semi final round have been posted. See Results.
Results

April Mini Band Contest by keith on Saturday, February 11 2006

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2006
Miniband Contest

The April 7th Mini Band Contest will go ahead as planned at the British
Imperial Club in Hamilton. At the time of posting, we have 7 Bands registered,
four Grade 5 and three Grade 4 Bands. Ideally, we would like to have the
maximum 10 bands for this evening. If you are interested in registering
a band, please do so before all positions are filled, registration will
be on a “first come, first serve “bases.

The Hamilton Police Pipe Band and the Georgetown Pipes and Drums (time permitting)
will be providing additional entertainment.

Please feel free to contact the Branch Executive with any questions.

http://ppbso.niagara-hamilton.org/

The Executive Committee of the EUSPBA has voted to reinstate the on field EUSPBA Championships. The championship will be held for grades 2 and 3 this year (2006) with the intention of adding to that in the future. Since the number of grade 2 bands is so small, they will all automatically qualify for the final. Grade 3 will have special branch championship contests to determine which band will qualify for the final.

http://www.euspba.org/news.htm#01/06/2006

The next Metro Branch meeting will be held on February 11th 2006 at 11a.m.,
NOT February 4th as previously posted. We decided to change the date so
as not to interfere with the Delco Workshop. The meeting will be held at
the Bergen Irish hall in Dumont NJ. The address is 41 OMAHA STREET. Please
mapquest for directions best suited from your location.

Read more online with http://bagpipenews.com/metro-branch-news-euspba-2306/