Patron tickets for the 2010 Pipes of Christmas concerts are now available for purchase. Any remaining general admission tickets will go on sale later this fall. Our Patrons program not only ensures your ticket to the concert, it also entitles ticket buyers to several classes of recognition via our Friends of the Pipes of Christmas program. Help support our music scholarship program by becoming a Friend of the Pipes of Christmas.

Patrons tickets for all three concerts can be purchased via mail order by completing the ticket order form found on our website at www.pipesofchristmas.com. Credit card purchases for our NYC concert only can be purchased by phone or online with our exclusive credit card ticketing service provider, SmartTix via phone at (212) 868-4444 or by visiting www.smarttix.com.

*Come to a Pre-Christmas Concert aend Ceilidh this September:

Join “Pipes of Christmas” favorites Local Hero, as they perform some of Scotland’s loveliest music in an evening of music, dance, spirits and fun. After the concert, take to the floor with some Scottish country dancing! The pre-Christmas party takes place on Friday, September 24 in the atrium of the Westy self storage facility located at 15 River Road in Chatham NJ. Admission is $20 per person and tickets will be available at the door. RSVP by calling (908) 273-3509.

Concertgoers will also be treated to a complimentary whisky tasting featuring Oban and Cardhu single malt scotch whiskies. As an added bonus there will be a silent auction to help our guests get a jump start on their holiday shopping. Items up for bid include a scotch tasting event at your home hosted by one of the brand ambassadors from the Classic Malts of Scotland, an autographed copy of Sir Sean Connery’s autobiography “Being a Scot,” and your personal bagpiper for a one hour performance at the event of your choice (wedding, religious service, party, etc.). If you have an item you’d care to contribute to add to our silent auction (sporting event or theatre tickets, gift baskets, etc.), please let us know.

Throughout the evening, tickets will be on sale for the 2010 Pipes of Christmas concerts as well. As an added bonus, all guests will be automatically entered into a raffle to win four (4) front row center tickets to one of the three concerts. The popular holiday concert returns to Summit on Saturday, December 18 with performances at 2 and 8PM and to NYC on Sunday, December 19 at 2:30 PM. The 2010 edition of the Pipes of Christmas is made possible by a generous gift from Oban single malt scotch whisky. Visit our website for complete details.

Watch Bagpipe Tuner HBT1 – Overview in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Irish Arts Center:

“Pipes and Piping in Ireland with Bill Ochs
Sunday, June 6 | 3 PM

Join us for a fabulous multi-media presentation that traces the 
development of piping in Ireland from the Middle Ages to the present. 
Master piper Bill Ochs has assembled a fascinating collection of 
woodcuts, lithographs, photos, and rare archival recordings that tell 
the story of the emergence of the uilleann pipes, the world’s most 
sophisticated bagpipe. To be followed by a solo piping concert in 
which Ochs demonstrates the full range and scope of this uniquely 
Irish instrument.

‘A most stimulating, informative, and entertaining presentation.’
—Professor Mick Moloney, NYU

Admission:  $15 general sale/ $12 members and students
To buy click here or call 212 868-4444″

(Via – Read Full Article.)

I will give a solo uilleann piping concert — preceded by a multi-media presentation on the history of pipes and piping in Ireland — on Sunday, June 6 at 3 PM at the Irish Arts Center (553 W. 51st St., b/t 10th & 11th, Manhattan).

Tickets are $15 ($12 for IAC members). Seats are already starting to move, so if you would like to attend, please order your tickets soon. The capacity of the house is only 99 seats and many events sell out.

As a courtesy to people on my mailing list, the IAC has offered to let you book tickets directly through their box office to avoid the $2 Smart Tix processing fee. Please call the IAC at 212-757-3318, ext. 209, 10 AM – 6 PM, Monday to Friday to purchase tickets. IAC members call ext. 204.

If you prefer to buy tickets online via Smart Tix, click here. A $2 per ticket service charge applies to Smart Tix orders.

It is a two-hour program, plus a fifteen-minute intermission. For a description of the event, click here.

I hope to see you on June 6!

Johnny Doherty (Seán Ó Dochartaigh) was born in Ardara, County Donegal (Ard an Rátha, Co. Thír Chonaill) at an unknown year.

The O’Doherty family were travelers in the culturally rich Gleann Cholm Cille area. Johnny’s father Mickey was a fiddler, and his mother Mary McConnell was a singer. Johnny was the youngest of nine children. As a teenager, Johnny was not allowed to play fiddle in the company of his parents until he had mastered the reel “Bonny Kate.” Johnny’s brother, also called Mickey, was noted for his style after the recording artist Michael Coleman ( Mícheál Ó Clúmháin), and Mickey can be heard play on “The Gravel Walks.”

The classic album The Floating Bow preserves Johnny Doherty music and stories for all time, and is a valuable treasure of the tradition. O’Doherty’s music is noted for its complicated ornamentation, double-stop bowing technique, and the uilleann pipe sound he successfully recreated on the fiddle. His influence on later masters is incalculably and hugely significant.

]]> http://www.bagpipenews.com/announcements/2010/02/16/watch-documentary-on-johnny-doherty-donegal-fiddle-legend/feed/ 0 http://www.bagpipenews.com/announcements/2010/02/07/pipe-band-ready-for-edinburgh-military-tattoo-local-news-news-mosman-daily/ http://www.bagpipenews.com/announcements/2010/02/07/pipe-band-ready-for-edinburgh-military-tattoo-local-news-news-mosman-daily/#comments Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:05:27 +0000 Pipe Major http://www.bagpipenews.com/?p=2271 Continue reading →]]>

Pipe band ready for Edinburgh Military Tattoo – Local News – News | Mosman Daily:

“BAGPIPES are cool, insists Mosman’s Claire Niccol, who took up the instrument at a girls’ high school in Perth.

‘There were about 50 girls learning the pipes; it was fun and a cool thing to do,’ she said.

‘There’s a guy in my band (Manly Warringah Pipe Band) at the moment who plays the bagpipes in his rock band.’

As a member of the Manly Warringah Pipe Band, Niccol will perform at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo tonight.”

(Via mosman-daily.whereilive.com.au – Read Full Article.)

Banned Scottish Dish Haggis Allowed Back in US:

“After being banned for 21 years, haggis will soon be allowed back into the United States.

According to Wikipedia haggis is a Scottish specialty dish that contains sheep’s offal (heart, liver and lungs,) minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally simmered in the animal’s stomach for approximately three hours.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to lift restrictions on the import of the dish, according to Reuters .

The news comes as Scots and fans of Robert Burns gather to toast the famous poet’s life. Burns night , which is celebrated on Jan. 25, usually includes a toast of whiskey and a festive dinner with haggis as the main dish, presented with bagpipe fanfare and saluted with Burns poem ‘The Address To A Haggis.’

U.S. authorities prohibited haggis over food safety fears that its main ingredient, sheep’s lungs, could potentially be lethal.

The Guardian reported that during the ban some Scots would smuggle into the U.S. a haggis for their relatives. And butchers in the U.S. have tried to make their own versions of the pudding without using the vital ingredient: sheep.”

(Via www.myfoxillinois.com – Read Full Article.)

“Ron Rowe says that people either love or hate the sound of bagpipes.

Rowe, who manages and plays for the Galloway Highlanders Pipes and Drums, a group founded in the Top of Utah by his father, is one of the lovers.

So is Clinton Tibbitts, a 17-year-old senior at Ben Lomond High School, home of the proud Scots. A bagpipe player for the school, he first became interested in the instrument when it was used as an alarm clock at summer camp when he was a preteen in Virginia.

‘For some reason, something that was really annoying, and related to waking up no less, caught my attention,’ said Tibbitts. ‘And then we moved to Utah, where it so happens that the high school I was attending offered it.’

For Rowe, of Clearfield, the pipes are a family affair. His father, Albert Rowe, started Galloway in 1992 as a way for family and friends to play together. Albert’s father also played.

‘It’s in the blood, I think,’ said Rowe. ‘Three of my four grandparents were from Scotland. My dad quit after his dad died — too many emotional ties for him. But after my mom died in 1992, we talked him into taking it up again and teaching, to give him something to do. The next thing we knew, we had enough people for a band.’

“

(Via www.standard.net – Read Full Article.)

“P/M George M Bell 1926-2010

January 16, 2010 – We are sorry to report today that Pipe Major George M. Bell passed awayat age 83, on January 16, 2010, after several years of intermittent illness. P/M Bell was one of the most important piping figures in the North America.
Bell emigrated from Glasgow to New Jersey where he founded the Kenmure Pipe Band in 1953. Under his leadership, the band won the Grade 1 Eastern United States Championships nine times. He was also an active and successful solo competitor.
PM Bell was instrumental in the beginnings of EUSPBA in 1964, and served our association in many capacities, including Chairman of the Judges Committee, where he worked to develop our judging accreditation program.
George Bell may be best known as a teacher, whose students included his sons Jimmy and Duncan, as well as Derek Midgley and Bobby Durning. His sons Gordon and Donald are prominent pipe band drummers.
Our condolences go to the Bell family and many friends at this sad time.
Funeral Arrangements:

Rezem Funeral Home, 457 Cranbury Road East Brunswick, NJ 08816
732-257-1191 or 800-257-1191
Viewing – Thursday 1/21/2010 – 2:00pm-4:00pm, 7:00pm-9:00pm
Funeral – 10:30am Friday 1/22/2010 in South Amboy, NJ”

(Via – Read Full Article.)

“Apr. 28 – In front of thousands of spectators, over 100 bagpipers paraded in the Chilean capital of Santiago.”

(Via www.reuters.com – View Video.)

“The Nationwide Tax Day Tea Party, represented by about 20 local residents who marched to a bagpipe’s bleating from General Motors’ headquarters to Cobo Center, carried abstractions of the American flag. Several members donned revolutionary era costumes and carried signs critical of President Obama, including the now-familiar image with a Hitler mustache.”

(Via wheels.blogs.nytimes.com .)

“Readers’ Enquiries

Published Date: 09 January 2010
Q I am writing a biography of John Grant, Edinburgh resident throughout the 1900s-1950s; a tax-collector and composer of bagpipe music, most notably The Pipes of War and The Royal Collection of Piobaireachd. I am hoping a descendant will read this and contact me at mocmus@juno.com. Dr. Alan Armstrong, professor of music, Mount Olive College Mount Olive, North Carolina, USA.”

(Via edinburghnews.scotsman.com – Read Full Article.)

Francis O’Neill (1848–1936) was an Irish musician and music collector from Co. Cork who emigrated to the U.S. and eventually became the chief of police of Chicago. He is best known for his seminal tune collection “O’Neill’s Music of Ireland.”

But O’Neill was also a highly prolific and very entertaining prose writer. His “Irish Minstrels and Musicians,” published in 1913, is one of the best sources we have for anecdotal information about Irish piping in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

I just learned that this important work has become available in its entirety on Google books. You can now download it for free here.

“Irish Minstrels and Musicians” is a wonderful read for anyone who is interested in the history of the pipes or in the history of Irish music in general.

O’Neill’s other major prose work, “Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby,” also recently came back into print and is now available for purchase from Amazon.

This second O’Neill book contains many interesting anecdotes about O’Neill’s collecting experiences and has more information about old pipers he knew or had heard of. Appendix A contains O’Farrell’s Treatise and Instructions on the Irish Pipes, published circa 1797-1800. Appendix B contains Hints to Amateur Pipers by Patsy Touhey.

“vPipes-Uilleann is a unique electronic uilleann bagpipes emulator that uses revolutionary technology resulting in a hyper-realistic experience in terms of sound quality, fingering and ornamentations. It thus affords the possibility of practising accurately in a variety of situations that would prove impractical or impossible with a real set of pipes.”

ORDERING CLOSES JAN 15 for FIRST RUN

We are pleased to announce that the vPipes-Uilleann is now available to order.

Many thanks to all for having demonstrated a ‘saintly’ patience.

You are finally able to enter the realm of hyper-realism with the vPipes-Uilleann.

The market price for the vPipes-Uilleann is 1,290 Euros (net of local taxes and delivery).

The special launch price has been maintained at 980 Euros (net of local taxes and delivery).

In order to be included in this launch, orders must placed before the 15th January 2010. Limited to 1 unit per person.

The period during which the vPipes can be reserved opens on 21/12/2009 and closes on 15/01/2010.

The vPipes Project Team

(Via www.vpipes.com – Read Full Article.)