There was a big line-up of competitors registered for the usual Solo Piping and Drumming competition held on the Saturday evening.  The competition was sponsored by Wallace Bagpipes and the competitors taken first place in the Piping disciplines received a Wallace gift voucher – many thanks to Wallace Bagpipes for their continuing support to all the Pipers Corner seminars.   Due to the positive response of the one to one tuition offered at the Winter School, we decided to extend this service to the weekend seminars as well, which was greatly appreciated by all the students

Feedback from all the students was excellent and everyone left with a very good feeling that they had learned a lot and made many good friends and contacts to help them progress with their individual playing in a correct and professional way.  Everyone is now looking forward to the forthcoming original Winter School in Brüggen, which is always held on the 2nd week in February (5 – 12) 2012 with the professional instructors of the National Piping Centre and the Red Hot Chilli Piper Craig Munro.

Fully story and images @ piperscorner

Craig joins fellow piping instructors Robert Watt, Davie Johnston, Romana Brunner, Reinhard Ladislav, Irmgard Foglar, Saskia Konz plus drumming instructor Mark Wilson.

Click the link more details – http://www.dudelsack.at/dudelsack_kurs/

1st Senior MSR
1st Senior Piobaireachd

Congratulations to David for this excellent achievement during a very busy period for the Piperscorner Shop.

Piperscorner Winter School

From 6 to 11 of April in Isernia – Molise, Italy, has held the fifth edition of the Italia Spring Piping School organized by the Italian Pipers’ Association and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

The first “pilgrims” arrived on the 5th evening at the Grand Hotel Europa, where the whole event had place, but the school started on the next day, Wed. 6 April, with a short briefing about the program and the school’s general organization.

Each teacher had his own teaching room: a small suite provided for free by the hotel.

For all the five days long school, the lessons started at 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a coffee break at 10:30 and the “Italian” lunch at 1:30 p.m.

Usually, in the evening, massed band practice or workshop/mini-concerts have been held in behalf of the locals in Venafro and in the medieval Pignatelli castle in Monteroduni.

The teaching has been great and, for the first time ever in Italy, the School has had youngsters among the students. 14 kids, already having piping tuition by the Association at their own school.

On Thursday evening 14 students competed on the pipes in a 3 sections piping contest: MSR, Slow Air + Dancing Tune, Marching Tune.

Results as follows:

• March-Strathspey-Reel : 1° Francesco Toiati, 2° Gino Schioppa, 3° Lorenzo Forconi
• Slow Air + Dancing Tune : 1° Gino Schioppa, 2° Lorenzo Forconi, 3° Alex Brown
• Marching Tune in 4 parti : 1° Duilio Vigliotti, 2° Daniela Ballardini, 3° Lino Peluso
• Over All Winner: Gino Schioppa who was generously presented a £250.00 pounds voucher by Wallace Bagpipes.

On Saturday 9 evening, in Campobasso, the regional capitol city has been held a huge public concert in the fabulous “Savoia” theatre. More than 300 people attended the concert and appreciated the artists on the stage.

On Monday 11, the RSAMD students, Stuart Liddell, Jamie Troy and two of the Italian students still remaining “alive on the field”, had a nice trip to Scapoli to visit the Zampogna Museum, sharing an interesting and helpful workshop on the Zampogna held by Dr. Duilio Vigliotti (Italian Pipers’ Association’s president) and by Piero Ricci and, at the end, after a welcome glass of wine by the Mayor of the village, having a great lunch on the place with typical dishes.

Sadly on Tuesday 12th it all was over but we now have good memories and looking forward to the next time.

“I can’t thank you enough for such a great week, the hospitality, the people, the laughs and of course the music…………magic” said Stuart Liddell “I have the fondest of memories!!!”

“It was a fantastic week and I loved it just as much as usual” said Finlay MacDonald “I think the Italian Pipers are in good health and definitely improving all the time. Duilio Vigliotti, API president, is the driving force behind the event and it amazes me how much energy and time he has to give to all of us. He is truly an inspiration to us all and I would just like to say a massive thank you again for his hard work and dedication which makes the Spring School happen”

“It was an amazing trip, what a great place!” said Jamie P. Troy “This was my second time in Italy as guest of the Italian Pipers’ Association and I was extremely fortunate to be invited also to this event, there was such an enthusiastic and passionate community thriving in Italy for the bagpipes and Scottish music. Thank you for having me back to Italy- the people and enthusiasm make it a pleasure to teach.”.

“My week teaching at the Italian Spring Piping School in Isernia was a great experience” said Jonathan Graham one of the three students from RSAMD “and I made many friends so many thanks to all for having me and being so hospitable!!”

“Please pass on our thanks to the tutors who have helped increase our son’s confidence, improve his technique and knowledge about caring for his pipes.”

“Many, many thanks to you all – musical learning at it’s best – made fun and inspiring, for all abilities and all ages. Fantastic!”

We are also pleased to announce the winners of the £250 Wallace Bagpipe vouchers are:

Most Improved: Ann Fleming, aged 10, Strathaven

Most Dedicated: Steven Gray, aged 17, Lockerbie. Steven is also a member of The National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland.

We have four more schools throughout the year, so if you want to immerse yourself in piping go to the seasonal piping school page for full details of dates, fees and more.

The instructors were Glenn Brown, Margaret Dunn, Craig Munro and Andrea Boyd who were all delighted with the progress the pupils made.

The week was augmented by the presence of Pipeline Celtic Themes as the piping supplies shop at the school. This was a fantastic addition to the school, and it was great to have a local business involved.

We once again showed our support to The National Piping Centre’s workshop with the donation of a £250 Wallace Bagpipes voucher which went to John Keane for the Most Dedicated Student of the week, pictured below with instructor Glenn Brown receiving his award.

Student Comments and photographs below (courtesy of Kathy P. Leistner).

“I felt that the instructors from The National Piping Centre are of the highest caliber in bag piping, instruction and commitment.”

“I learned a great deal about maintenance, reeds etc.”

“It is very helpful and i learn something new every time.”

We hope that the students enjoyed their week as much as we did and we hope to see all our North American friends there in 2012.

Before the recital Craig Munro of Wallace Bagpipes presented his “Understand & Appreciate Your Bagpipes” lecture leaving the audience amazed at how much goes into the making of bagpipes behind the scenes.

To celebrate the fifth birthday of Recital contest, four international pipers were selected: Cap Caval PM Hervé Le Floc’h, Red Hot Chilli Piper Kyle Warren, Piping Centre instructor John Mulhearn and Shotts and Dykehead piper Craig Munro. Hervé played the first recital. Of course he treated the audience to some wonderful Breton airs. Kyle Warren took a different approach; he played some of his own tunes (from the collection Tunez) and even performed a few “Chili style” dance moves. John played a couple of John D Burgess tunes on a brilliantly balanced set of pipes, with a very strong musical expression. Craig Munro played last and set off playing a strong set of 4/4 marches and slowly speeded up his recital with hornpipes and jigs.

The reactions from the audience were extremely positive and the players visibly enjoyed performing on the event. The recital organizers would like to thank their sponsors Carrynette & Piperscorner Shop. The organization is already preparing for the 2011 edition. If you want to be a part of the competition (attending, sponsoring, or even competing), you can get in touch with the organization through our website: http://www.recitalcontest.nl

Results

1^st – John Mulhearn

2^nd – Craig Munro

3^rd – Kyle Warren

4^th – Herve Le Floc’h