May 7, 2003
Evening of Champions features top bagpipers
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
With fingers flying over the chanter, the bagpipers wove a tapestry of jigs, reels and hornpipes Saturday for an audience of nearly 300 at The Presbyterian Church. Gathered for An Evening of Champions, area Celtic aficionados were treated to award-winning bagpipers and drummers from around the world.
The concert was part of the fourth annual two-day bagpipe seminar hosted by Henderson Imports, Ltd., in Traverse City. The seminar featured dozens of classes that drew 80 students from around the state for a weekend of learning, practice and fun.
The concert featured members of the Grand Traverse Pipes and Drums as well as five individual artists and a bagpipe band from Cleveland called the Micro 78th Fraser Highlanders. A total of eight pipers and six drummers participated in the Evening of Champions, including musicians from Scotland, Canada and the United States.
The pageantry of the music and the bright plumage of the tartans framed Saturday night's festivities, which drew an enthusiastic standing ovation after a rousing finale featuring all the artists.
"Look at the number here, this is great community support," said James Moore, owner of Henderson Imports, Ltd., reflecting on the concert's appeal.
Courses at the seminar ranged from introductions to bagpipes and drums to advanced piobaireachd, or music for the Highland pipe. Other courses covered the basics of how to tune a band, maintenance and pipe set up and adjusting drone reeds and chanter reeds. The seminar also offered snare drum and tenor drum workshops, with topics ranging from rolls and tuning to flourish and applications.
Pamela Young of Redford has been playing the bagpipes off and on for 20 years. She attended the seminar hoping to motivate herself to the next level of playing.
"This is awesome, the best seminar I've been to," she said. "We really learned a lot from everybody."
Hailing her Scottish roots, Rachel Taylor of Valparaiso, Ind., was inspired to play the bagpipes by her uncle, a long time piper. While just a beginner, the seminar boosted her enthusiasm for the instrument.
"I've been playing the chanter for four months and the pipes for two," she said. "This has been great."
The instructors and musicians attending the Evening of Champions included world and open champion players. One was Clark Abercrombie of Cleveland who is pipe major for the 78th Fraser Highlanders and has been playing the bagpipes for 20 years. His mother sparked his interest, playing old bagpipe records when he was growing up until one day he declared he wanted to learn the instrument.
Abercrombie practices twice a week with his band and three times a week on his own, dedicating himself to growing with the music. He said the more he learns with this complex instrument, the more he realizes there is to learn.
"I love to teach and I listen to and learn from everyone from the lowest player to the highest," said Abercrombie, who has played with three-time Grade 1 North American Champions, the Toronto Metro Police.
Abercrombie has traveled to Scotland many times to compete and study. He is also a regular at the Alma Highland Games, the opening stop on the bagpipe performance circuit.
"We compete a lot, do competitions all over," he continued. "It is a lot of fun."
The drummers are an integral component of the bagpipe sound, Abercrombie said.
"We only play in B flat, don't move, so the drums give us our dynamics, the highs and lows," he said.
While learning to play the bagpipes solo is a challenge in itself, learning to play as part of a band goes beyond mastering the difficult instrument.
"First of all, the music is memorized," said Ann Marie Duncan of Bay City, a veteran player. "Then when you tune the band all the chanters and drones have to sound as one. Then you have to march while playing."