Cumann na bPíobairí – Uilleann Pipers

Concert & Céilí:                   February 13, 2010

7.30 PM.  Admission  $15  ($5 for children 12 and under)

Workshops:                          February 13 & 14, 2010

 Venue:                                   St. Benedict School

4811 Wallingford Ave N, Seattle

Featured Performers:          Denis Brooks, Kevin Rowsome, Randal Bays, Tom Creegan,  Leo MacNamara and more.

About the Uilleann pipes:  Uilleann pipes are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland.  The bag is inflated with bellows strapped around the waist and the right arm. These pipes are distinguished by their sweet tone and wide range of notes — the chanter has a range of two full octaves, including sharps and flats — together with the unique blend of chanter, drones, and “regulators.”  The regulators are equipped with closed keys which can be opened by the piper’s wrist action enabling the piper to play simple chords, giving a rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment as needed. 

About the Irish Pipers’ Club:  The Irish Pipers’ Club, a 501 (c)3 non-profit organization based in Seattle, preserves and promotes the playing of the uilleann pipes.  The club holds monthly meetings to conduct club business, play tunes, and help learning pipers.  It was started by Denis Brooks in 1979 in San Francisco and in Seattle in 1981.  The Irish Pipers’ Club and the San Francisco Pipers’ Club collaborate to promote the annual West Coast Tionól.

Contact:         tionol@irishpipersclub.org  or  206-633-3651

Workshops will be offered in piping, reedmaking, flute, tin whistle, fiddle, Irish song, guitar accompaniment and Irish language

Schedule

Saturday Feb 13, 2010

 10.00 AM – Noon     All Workshops

2.00 – 4.00 PM         All Workshops 

7.30—Midnight          Concert & Céilí  

Sunday  Feb 14, 2010

11.00 – 1.00 PM          Piping and Irish language Workshops

2.30 – 4.00 PM                        Lecture & Piping Recitals

4.30 – 7.00 PM           Public Recitals at Conor Byrne’s Pub (free)

Performers will include: 

Denis Brooks:  Denis started out playing the mouth-blown war pipes as a teenager in the Seattle boys pipe band. The band became quite competitive and gained recognition and the notice of other bands when they differentiated themselves by playing Irish tunes, rather than the better-known Scottish tunes most bands played. 

Denis soon transitioned to uilleann pipes, doing so during a most unlikely period.  Irish music and piping had declined from enthusiastic popularity in the late part of the 19^th century and early part of the 20^th century.  The music had thrived in the United States, spurred on by the likes of Chicago police chief, Captain Francis O’Neill, who vigorously worked to transcribe and publish common, and not so common, Irish tunes.  Not many years after O’Neill retired in 1905, uilleann piping fell out of common interest.  By the late 1940’s through the early 1960’s, uilleann piping hit a nadir.  Pipe-makers were very hard to find, and just acquiring a set of working pipes was a challenge.  Thankfully, Denis managed to get a set of Kennedy pipes from Cork City, and began his uilleann piping excursion.

Moving to California in the late 70’s, Denis and a few other locals started the San Francisco Pipers’ Club.  Denis’s playing and tutelage helped grow the Irish music community in San Francisco and saw uilleann piping become a regular part of sessions and performances there.  He left San Francisco in 1980 and returned to Seattle.  It didn’t take long for Denis to organize another Pipers’ Club.  He soon had several piping students who were inspired by Denis’s mastery of the pipes.  His Rowsome style of playing, with judicious use of regulators, left virtually everyone who heard him in awe.  It wasn’t only pipers who were attracted to the burgeoning Irish music scene in Seattle, however.  Soon fiddlers, guitar players, flutists, concertina players started to assemble for sessions and gigs around the city. His wealth of knowledge regarding the history of Irish Pipes as well as the origins of much of the music has kept many a club member spellbound after the weekly lessons. With relentless effort Denis kept the Pipers’ Club momentum moving forward.  Gathering information, transcribing interviews, and cataloging upcoming events, in 1981 Denis published the first club newsletter, “The Pipers’ Review.   It has continued to be published on a regular basis to this day. 

Unfortunately for Seattle, Denis moved to Ireland in the late 80’s. There is no question that Denis was a major driving force behind the growing traditional Irish music scene in Seattle.  All you have to do is follow him around during one of his visits to see the throngs of people that come to reminisce and just talk with him again.

 He continues to perform in Ireland and is a frequent honored guest at major piping events.

It is with great pride and pleasure that we again welcome Denis Brooks back to the biannual 2010 Seattle Pipers’ Club Tionól.

Kevin Rowsome:  Kevin Rowsome started playing the uilleann pipes at the age of six years. He took his first lessons from his grandfather Leo and, later, from his father, Leon.  During his teenage years Kevin played clarinet and saxophone with the Artane Boys band.

Kevin gained public recognition when he won first prize at the Oireachtas festival, and is widely regarded as one of today’s finest uilleann pipers.

Kevin has gained vast experience as a performer and instructor of the pipes, performing extensively and lecturing and instructing at a number of Irish music festivals throughout Europe and USA.

As well as his own debut recording “The Rowsome Tradition”, five generations of uilleann piping, Kevin has recorded and performed with various artistes.

Kevin has a number of musical compositions to his name. He gained wide recognition as a composer when he won the prestigious Cuisle Ceoil an Bhlascaoid (the musical pulse of the Blasket islands) musical composing competition in 2006.

Randal Bays: Randal Bays is an American musician whose mastery of the intricate art of Irish fiddle playing has earned him an international reputation among fans of Irish music.  He’s known as an exciting and dynamic performer whose music grows out of a deep respect for the ancient wellsprings of the Irish tradition. As one reviewer put it, “Bays’s playing is light and fluid yet still has a sense of power and passion. He’s simply a joy to listen to.” (Dirty Linen Magazine, April 2001)

Randal was born not in Ireland but in Indiana, where he started on trumpet at age eight, and then took up the guitar at age twelve.  A year later he had his first paid gig and went on to play in several popular rock and blues bands around the Midwest while learning to play the classical guitar.  Randal attended two years of music school in Indiana, where he studied music theory and composition before emigrating to the Pacific Northwest at the age of twenty. He’s made his home there ever since, and now lives on Whidbey Island, near Seattle.

After wandering into a wild session on a rainy night in Portland, Oregon in 1978, Randal took up the fiddle and started teaching himself to play Irish traditional music.  He was influenced by many of the Irish musicians in the Northwest, including Kevin Burke, Michael Beglan, Michéal O’Domhnaill, and many more who passed through, including James Kelly, Joe Burke, etc.  He eventually met the Clare fiddler Martin Hayes in Seattle and agreed to provide guitar accompaniment for Martin’s landmark debut recording in 1993.  This led to the first of many trips to Ireland, where Randal’s fiddling found great acceptance among fans of traditional music.

In recent years Randal has toured and recorded with many of the finest Irish musicians, including James Keane and Daithi Sproule (in the band FINGAL), James Kelly, John Williams,  Martin Hayes, Tony McManus, Aine Meenaghan, Roger Landes.  His most recent recording, “Dig With It” (2009) features the brilliant Canadian guitarist Dave Marshall, with whom Randal now tours in North American and Canada.

Randal Bays is a dedicated and thoughtful teacher of Irish fiddling, often in demand for workshops and music camps, and is a co-founder of the Friday Harbor Irish Music Camp.  He’s also composed original scores for several award-winning films and documentaries.

Tom Creegan:               Tom had been vitally involved in the Seattle Irish music scene since the early 1980’s.  He is an officer of the Irish Pipers Club as well as the current editor of the piping newsletter, “The Pipers’ Review”.  He is a native of Dublin where he learned the uilleann pipes at the famed Pipers’ Club in Thomas Street founded by Leo Rowsome.  Seattle Metropolitan Magazine called Tom a “local master of uilleann pipes – the only under arm sound you can make without being scolded.”

Leo MacNamara:  Leo hails from Scariff in County Clare, a widely acknowledged hot-bed of traditional Irish music.  He plays wooden flute, whistles and guitar and has been playing for over twenty years.  Steeped in the traditional music of his native county, Leo brings together a broad array of musical influences to produce a unique style, incorporating a forceful tempo, full of lyrical touches and the odd flight of fancy.  Now living in Seattle, he is a well known figure on the local and national scene.

Dave Cory:   Hailing from the Bay Area Dave is a prominent member of the younger generation of players of Irish music.  He is a respected multi-instrumentalist on tenor banjo, guitar, tin whistle and bodhran.  Dave is much in demand as a guitar accompanist and a hit-man banjo player.  He has played with many of the young superstars of the scene including the band, Providence, Magic Square, and Alissa Schneckenberger.

Laura Ploudre:   Laura Mooney started singing traditional Irish songs with her grandmother at an early age. Throughout her school career, she pursued classical training, singing with the University Chorale (UW) and the UW Opera Chorus. She also sang with the Seattle Choral Company for several years.  The past twenty years brought a return to the musical traditions of her childhood, and Laura began singing, along with husband Paul, as “McSorley’s Reeks” at festivals and in local pubs.  Laura is inspired by the singing of Joe Heaney, Niamh Parsons, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, Dolores Keane, Mary Black, and Maura O’Connell.  

With her crystalline voice Laura brings exceptional feeling to her performances, tapping into the deep context of the repertoire.

About Leo Rowsome:

Leo Rowsome (1903 – 1970) was the third generation of an unbroken line of uilleann pipers. He was a performer, manufacturer and teacher of the uilleann pipes – the complete master of his instrument. He devoted his entire life to the uilleann pipes. He played a massive role in the Irish traditional music saga and in the ultimate resurgence of traditional Irish music. He was instrumental in the founding of the international Irish music organization, Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, as well as Na Piobairi Uilleann, the major piping organization.  The name Rowsome will always be synonymous with the music of Ireland.

Leo was born in Harold’s Cross, Dublin in 1903. His father, William, realized that his son had the ability to become a talented musician and craftsman. Constantly watching his father making and repairing instruments, Leo learned the art of pipe making and instrument repair. So rapid was his progress at piping that, in 1919, at the age of sixteen he was appointed teacher of the uilleann pipes at Dublin’s Municipal School of Music.  He was to teach there for 50 years.  He also taught at Thomas Street Pipers Club.

In 1925, Leo’s father died at the age of fifty-five. Leo successfully carried on the family business, after completing his own set of pipes in 1926. The instrument remained an object of fascination and veneration for countless audiences at home and abroad.

In the early 1920’s Leo was the first uilleann piper to perform on Irish National Radio when he played solo and later in duets with Frank O’Higgins (fiddle), Micheal O Duinn (fiddle) and Leo’s brother John (fiddle).  Leo’s “All Ireland Trio” comprised Neilus Cronin, flute, Seamus O‘Mahony, fiddle and Leo on pipes. He formed his Pipes Quartet in the mid 1930’s and broadcast regularly throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s.  Leo was the first Irish artist to perform on the BBC in 1933.  He made many recordings for the Decca, Columbia and HMV labels.  His last commercial recording, CC1 “Ri na bPiobairi” (King of the Pipers) was made for Claddagh Records in 1966.

To commemorate the Centenary of Leo’s birth in 2003, his daughter, Helena, published some of Leo’s original manuscripts.  ”The Leo Rowsome Collection of Irish Music” consists of 428 reels and jigs. Leo’s “Tutor for the Uilleann Pipes” (1936) is included in that publication.