Celtic Fringe

I am part of a very small number of Israeli pipers, and I live in the hill country of Galilee, in the town of Karmi’el, between the Mediterranean ocean and the Sea of Galilee, and about 50 kilometres north of Nazereth. 

I first studied pipes as a teenager 35 years ago with Agnes “Aggie” Wallace, originally of Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, while she lived in retirement in the Hawaiian Islands.  Aggie learned as a very young child from her father and other great piping characters before the First World War, thus imparting to me a very old, traditional style.  I studied for several intensive years with Aggie.  I lived in central Edinburgh for part of the 1970s, where I slouched unnoticed in worn leather chairs at the West End Hotel, when it was still a piper’s hang-out.  I watched James Tweedie test a chanter he had just turned and tuned, only to smash it over his knees after about 10 seconds of blowing.  I also played off and on in various pubs in central Edinburgh, several times with Scots Guardsmen.  During this period, I met pipe maker William Sinclair, and with the hearty encouragement of a number of senior piping advisers, I ordered a set of full-ivory Sinclairs.  In my university days in the Pacific Northwest of the US I competed successfully up into senior amateur, including several times before Seamus MacNeil.  He always made pointedly great comments about the sound of my pipes, so I must credit my Sinclairs for a good part of my luck.  I admit these days to playing outdoors with a MacCallum synthetic chanter, which blends nicely with the strong, rich, Sinclair drones.  I played for a while with the Oregon National Guard Reserve pipe band, which was an interesting experiment in forming a band out of pipers who would still maintain their obligations with a primary band.

Early in my piping days, I played with a number of seriously non-competitive bands, against the wishes of my tutor, and with no great musical satisfaction to myself, except that I met my then-highland dancing wife nearly 25 years ago in one of those bands.  I also met and piped along the way with a number of good, solid pipers who eventually went on to successful solo and band piping.  With these fellow musicians, I began my interest in harmony, counter melody, tuneful medley arrangement, and original composition.  I began composing in part because when I started the old military pipe collections were still dominant in the pipe music scene, and as great as the old classics are, they were then being over played.  I wanted new music, so I began composing.  I type BMW Gold code faster than I type Hebrew or English, and I am working on a first collection of Israeli tunes for the Highland pipes, on CD in BMW Gold.

Eventually I felt the pull of home, and I returned to Israel in the late 1980s.  I do some teaching here in the Galilee, but only of serious, self-disciplined students.  I hope to have a solid trio or quartet going in the next few years.  My goal in tutoring is to create a musician-piper who is a pleasure to be heard, and is self-sufficient in bagpipe set-up, maintenance and tuning.  I am not certain if there will ever be a critical mass of high-end piping talent in Israel, enough for a full, musical band, but there are a few fine piper musicians here.