Monday highlight events at Piping Live! 2024

By Iain MacDonald

A regular contributor to pipes|drums, Iain MacDonald of Regina, Saskatchewan (don’t start to stutter) is one of Canada’s foremost pipers and contributors to the art. For decades, he has led pipe bands and taught dozens of newcomers to the pipes, many of whom have gone on to play and enjoy the instrument at the highest level. A pupil of Donald MacLeod, he still competes in solo events and with the Grade 1 78th Highlanders (Halifax Citadel). Iain will contribute his thoughts on various events during the next three days of this year’s Piping Live! festival.

Q&A and performances with Ally the Piper
Piping Live!
The National Piping Centre
Street Café
August 12, 2024 – £15

“Ally the Piper” – Ally Crowley-Duncan of New York – made her performance debut as a solo artist early Monday evening at the Street Cafe. The ticketed event was packed to capacity with interested spectators, and many of them had questions about her rise to internet stardom, her music experience and her practice habits.

No one had more questions than the always engaging Fergus Muirhead, who interviewed Ally about her piping career, music studies and the viral videos for which she is so well known. Muirhead also fielded questions from the audience and read questions submitted in advance. It was an interesting discussion, and it became clear that Ally is an intelligent and interesting IRL person.

The session included performances that displayed Ally’s wide-ranging abilities as a composer, arranger, and performer on Highland pipes, smallpipes, whistles and vocals. She was accompanied by a guitar/vocalist for the small pipe whistle set and then did a mashup of her most viral hits on TikTok and other social media.

The audience was enthusiastic, and Ally delivered her trademark excellent piping with flair and energy, much to the delight of all present. She lived up to expectations built on social media, proving that her transition to live performances and entertaining crowds is engaging.

Interestingly, this event was ticketed (£15), a departure from previous years when Street Cafe performances were free. The event program for Piping Live! mentions that the festival has suffered significant funding cuts from the Scottish government and many other cultural events. This pressures events to scale back their offerings and re-examine free versus paid entry for some events.

It must be reassuring to festival organizers that people are keen to attend paid events and are embracing this year’s offerings fully.

Ceol Nua
Piping Live!
Nice N Sleazy
Sauchiehall Street
August 12, 2024 – £18.50

According to emcee John Mulhearn, the term “Ceol Nua” was coined by well-known American piper and composer Matt Welch to describe innovative, new music. This was a highly entertaining show that showcased the music of pipers Fionnlagh Mac A’ Phiocair and Bede Patterson.

Mac A’ Phiocair performed his music with the Sòlás Collective, a trio that features Mac A’Phiocair on smallpipes, Sarah Hanniffy on viola, and Tom MacFadyen on electronics. The pieces make use of vocals in English and Gaelic. The music is highly innovative and comfortingly familiar, a wash of sound and impact that bleeds emotion.

The performance was more of a soundscape than a series of pieces, with the instruments and electronics all used in multiple innovative ways to engage the audience and set a scene. The music gave the sense that it was both very old and quite new.

The last set was a selection of strathspeys and reels that demonstrated Mac A’Phiocair’s tremendous technical ability on the smallpipes, and a lot of innovative fingering and ornamentation that highlighted the range of possibilities on these pipes.

After a small break, Australian piper Bede Patterson took the stage with The Nexus Project, which featured Bede on Highland pipes, Dean Garrity on soprano saxophone, Ewan Johnston on piano and Roan Anderson on a full drum kit.

The program description states, “The Nexus Project surveys the inextricable links between early and modern bagpipe performance and repertoire.” In other words, this is not your grandad’s piobaireachd. Patterson’s music uses tradition as inspiration and then spins it out in ways that demonstrate his diverse compositional influences.

Scotland has a long history of sending music and cultural traditions outward, landing Gaelic song, dance, fiddle music and pipe tunes in the far corners of the earth. Patterson has returned to Scotland carrying that tradition, and his innovative music composition brings a fresh perspective. This kind of tradition-based innovation coming from afar is part of what makes the Scottish music scene so exciting.

The approximately 100 people gathered in the basement of Nice N Sleazy were enthusiastic, called for an encore, and seemed to love The Nexus Project, responding to the driving rhythms and complex melody lines of pipes and saxophone.

Patterson’s pipes were full, rich, and vibrant, and he demonstrated great technical skill with complex melodies. He was fully in control of the arrangements, cueing the other musicians and keeping the sets moving. Patterson will be a prodigious contributor to the local scene in years to come.

It was an excellent night of music, and the audience was impressively big for what could be considered the avant-garde portion of the festival.

Stay tuned to pipes|drums for more reports from the 2024 Piping Live! festival.