OSAS Smallpipes Class 2024

All students are expected to bring their own instrument (Scottish smallpipes with standard A-chanter). Please note the class size is limited.

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.

 

About our Smallpipes Instructors

Please Note:  Instructor(s) are subject to change based on enrollment.
Timothy Cummings – Small Pipes

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.  www.TimothyCummings.com

Gary West – Smallpipes

Gary West is a musician, academic and broadcaster based in Edinburgh, Scotland, who has spent his professional life researching, teaching, performing and promoting the cultural and musical traditions of Scotland. He spent almost three decades as a faculty member of the University of Edinburgh where he was the Head of Celtic and Scottish Studies and where he held a personal Chair in Scottish Ethnology. He is known also as ‘the voice of piping’ having presented ‘Pipeline’ on BBC Radio Scotland for two decades before developing his own podcast, ‘Enjoy Your Piping’ which promotes piping on a weekly basis to over 100 nations worldwide. He is a highly esteemed piper and piping teacher in his own right, having won both the Scottish and European Championships with the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band, and is now Pipe Major of the famous Atholl Highlanders Regiment, the private army of the Duke of Atholl. Recognized as one of the world’s leading players on Scottish Smallpipes, he has performed, recorded and taught widely across Europe and North America.