All Students are expected to bring their own instrument. Please note that class sizes are LIMITED and the minimum enrollment criteria must be met or the course will be cancelled.
The piping course for the week will include the following:
• Improving technique and execution.
• Music theory and its application to the pipes.
• Learning different types of tunes.
• Care and maintenance of the pipes.
• Working with reeds and setting up the instrument.
• Various levels of Piobaireachd instruction available.
• Playing together in a group or band
There will be opportunities to play in evening sessions and to practice your new found knowledge.
Advanced Piping
The Advanced Piping course will have you setting up your pipes for the winning sound.
• Marches
• Strathspey and Reels
• Hornpipes and Jigs
This will include selecting tunes that are suited to the player and getting the most expression from the tunes.
The morning classes will include the following levels – Practice Chanter, Beginner, Advanced Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced.
The afternoon classes will involve maintenance, technique, competition readiness and preparation, and playing for highland dancers. These classes will be grouped based on level of play and specific requests of the students.
Smallpipes
All students are expected to bring their own instrument (Scottish smallpipes with standard A-chanter). Please note the class size is limited and is currently full.
The Scottish smallpipes course will include the following topics throughout the week:
• Having foundational understanding of the instrument
• Improving playing posture and bellows technique
• Basic care and maintenance of bellows-blown pipes
• Music theory as applied to tunes, drone tunings, learning by ear, and playing with other instruments
• A variety of repertoire, including session tunes
• Discussions on session etiquette
• Discussions on the differences between Highland and smallpipes, and their repertoire (including ornamentation)
• Depending on time and interest, we may also delve into the topic of temperament (with regards to fine tuning)
The morning classes will integrate many of the above topics as we explore new repertoire. The afternoon classes will involve listening sessions, harmony playing, and practice/self-enrichment time. There will be opportunities to play in evening sessions and apply the week’s repertoire and topics. We will also learn a ‘Tune of the Week’, in collaboration with the harp and fiddle classes.
Classes will be more geared towards intermediate players of bellows-blown Scottish smallpipes, however all levels of experience, and players of mouthblown smallpipes (A chanters), are welcome. Beginners can expect to be a little overwhelmed at times (which is okay!), advanced players may find some topics already familiar (also okay!). There will be opportunities for all participants to engage in self-enrichment projects.
OSASPBA Competition:
Recognizing the fact that pipe band performances and competitions are an integral part of our art form, the Ohio Scottish Arts School encourages its piping and drumming students to participate in the OSASPBA Pipe Band Championships. Involvement in this group activity builds team skills, pipe band skills, and increases personal growth and development in our art form. Students are divided into groups (bands). Each group has an appointed leader. That leader works with the group to organize a performance set. The bands play their performance piece in a relaxed and encouraging atmosphere on the last day of OSAS. The groups are judged by instructors and students. Once the score sheets are tabulated the OSASPBA Championship winners are announced. Below are photos of the annual winning Pipe Bands.
About our 2024 Pipe Instructors
Please Note: Instructor(s) are subject to change based on enrollment. Instructor(s) for 2025 to be determined.
Barry Conway has studied under Doug Ross, Ken Eller, Sandy Keith, Noel Slagle, and Bob Worrall, and had his Piobaireachd training from Jim McIntosh. He is a successful solo player having won the Ohio Scottish Games Piper of Day 3 times and won or placed at virtually every major contest in Ontario, Midwest and East including North American Championships in Maxville. Barry finished his solo career at Open level.
He is the current Pipe Major of Great Lakes Pipe Band and a former member of Windsor Police Pipe Band Gr. 1 and City of Washington Gr. 1 Pipe Band, 87th Cleveland Gr. 2 Pipe Band, and Western Reserve Gr. 2 Pipe Band. He began his career playing with The Caledonian Pipe Band, Cleveland, OH and he is founding member and former Pipe Sergeant and Pipe Major of North Coast Pipe Band.
He has produced or co-produced four recordings in career. Pipes UP, New Crossroads and “Dirty Laugh” while with North Coast Pipe Band and Generations while a member of 87th Cleveland Pipe Band.
Barry has been a bagpipe instructor in the Cleveland, Ohio area for many years and has taught at the Ohio Scottish Arts School since 2008. He is an adjudicator on both the EUSPBA and MWPBA panels.
Barry Donaldson was a police officer by profession retiring in 2006 as Chief Inspector. He was a founder member of the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band, formed in 1975 winning 11 World Championships.
From the late 70s through to the early 90s, Barry was a highly successful solo piper winning many major light music competitions (premier graded by the Competing Pipers Association). In 1995, he was invited onto the solo piping judges panel and appointed senior light music adjudicator. He is a pipe band adjudicator with the RSPBA as well as being an examiner for the Piping and Drumming Qualifications Board.
Advancement within the police service unfortunately excluded further involvement with the band, however it allowed him to work with lower grade bands and he eventually found himself Pipe Majoring the following, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, North Lanarkshire and City of Edinburgh, all competing successfully in grades 4, 3 and 2, winning Championships at each level and gaining promotion.
During this period Barry was responsible for establishing a number of youth development initiatives which produced two highly successful juvenile pipe bands, namely North Lanarkshire Schools’ and City of Edinburgh Schools.
On retirement from the police, he was asked to support The College of Piping, Glasgow. Shortly thereafter Barry was appointed senior piping instructor and a member of the Board of Directors. He has taught piping locally and internationally and whilst he is no longer part of the College, teaching remains high on his agenda.
Craig Munro is the Master Craftsman and Director of Wallace Bagpipes. He started learning the chanter at the age of 8 through the Linwood Caledonia Pipe Band under tuition from Gordon Lawrie before joining the Renfrew District Association (latterly Paisley Pipe Band) at the age of 10 under Pipe Major Colin Johnstone where he won various RSPBA Major Championship titles in Novice Juvenile and Juvenile until joining the Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band Under Pipe Major Robert Mathieson at the age of 15. He has played at the top of grade 1 for 20 years with the last 10 years as a member of the St Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band where he currently runs their Scottish branch of the bands pipe corp. As well as his commitment to St Laurence O’Toole, Craig is in demand as a guest player and mentor for bands worldwide where he has also won Championships in Europe, Australia, South Africa and North America.
He is in high demand worldwide for his teaching and adjudication services such as Europe, North America and South America. His Understand & Appreciate Your Bagpipes lecture which takes the audience on the journey of an African Blackwood seed through the plantation and harvesting process in Tanzania then a virtual tour of his factory is the highlight of any workshop! He is also an approved IPBA Adjudicator as well as an SQA Assessor for the National Piping Centre.
Out with the competing circuit, Craig is also a member of the Red Hot Chilli Pipers touring the world and performing to crowds as large as 60,000 at venues including the SECC Hydro and BT Murrayfield Stadium. As a keen golfer, his favourite Chilli Pipers gig is performing at the 2014 Ryder Cup in Gleneagles, Scotland. He was featured on the Disney Pixar “Brave” soundtrack as well as the DreamWorks “How To Train Your Dragon 2 & 3” soundtrack.
Palmer Shonk has been the Director of Piping at the College of Wooster since 2017. Palmer played with one of the top pipe bands in North America, the Grade 1 Toronto Police Pipe Band, for eight years, during which time he performed at the Festival Interceltique in Lorient, France, the largest Celtic music festival in the world, competed in the finals of the World Pipe Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and recorded an acclaimed CD album. Currently, Palmer competes solo in the professional ranks in Canada, the U.S., and Scotland. Beginning his studies at the young age of 10 in Ligonier, PA, Palmer has been lucky to study with some of the best performers and tradition-bearers from Scotland (Jimmy McIntosh, Alasdair Gillies, Willie Morrison, and Duncan Watson.) In addition to performing regularly, he teaches four different pipe bands weekly in OH and PA, along with maintaining a large private lesson studio. Palmer was the 2017 Professional Piper of the Day at the Ohio Scottish Games. Palmer performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 2017. In 2020 he began teaching bagpipes at OSAS. In 2022 he was the “Artistic Pipe Major” for the Cleveland International Tattoo in addition to re-kindling a high school bagpipe program in the Greater Pittsburgh Area.
**NEW for 2024** Smallpipes
Timothy Cummings is a Vermont-based composer and multi-instrumentalist (chiefly a piper) who enjoys an uncommonly diverse repertoire. His music spans from contemporary and sacred music to the traditional melodies of the British Isles, Appalachia, Cape Breton, Brittany, and beyond. Tim earned his undergraduate degree in Music Education (The College of Wooster, OH); and both a B.A. Honours degree in Ethnomusicology and an M.A. in Musicology (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand). While living in New Zealand, Tim was a member of the Manawatu Scottish Pipe Band (Gr.1), winning the Royal NZ Pipe Band Championships in 2001. He was also the 2002-03 Artist in Residence at The College of Piping and Celtic Performing Arts of Canada (Summerside, PEI).
In recent years he has appeared as a performer, workshop leader, and dance musician at Acadia Trad School (ME), the Bellingham Celtic Festival (WA), the Beinn Gorm Smallpipe Weekends (VT), Càirdeas (VT), the Celtic Arts Foundation (WA), Colaisde na Gàidhlig / The Gaelic College (NS), Maine Pipes & Fiddle Weekends, the Northeast Heritage Music Camp (VT), PEI Fiddle Camp, The Pipers’ Gathering (VT, CT), The Piper’s Rendezvous (QC), Trad Camp (VT), the Upper Potomac Piper’s Weekend (WV), the Wooster Smallpipes Workshop (OH), the Spanish Peaks International Celtic Music Festival and Piping Retreat (CO), the Boxwood Festival (Australia), the Celtic Harmonies International Festival (QC), the Champlain Valley Folk Festival (VT), Festival Chants de Vielles (QC), the New World Festival (VT), and Swing Into Summer at Pinewoods (MA).
In addition to teaching and performing, Tim operates Birchen Music & Publishing, a cottage industry devoted to publishing a diverse array of new music for Scottish-style pipes. He has also written extensively for Piping Today magazine. Additional creative pursuits have included an award-winning duo album with Jeremiah McLane, ‘The Wind Among the Reeds’ (2016), as well as ‘On This Day Earth Shall Ring’ (2017), an extensive printed collection of carols arranged for Scottish-style pipes. More recently, Cummings released ‘The Birds’ Flight’ (2021), a Scottish/Appalachian-crossover album with Brad Kolodner and the late Middlebury music emeritus Pete Sutherland, and was the featured guest artist with the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra (Spring 2022). He most frequently performs in a duet with McLane, and also with Triton, a trio with McLane and Alex Kehler. Their debut album, ‘Rule of Three’, was released in 2023.