Yes! I want to be a member of OPS and receive this monthly newsletter and notification of special OPS events.

Name: _____________________________________________________________________

Address: ____________________________________________________________________

City: __________________________________ State: _________ Zip: ________________

Day Phone: ___________________________ Evening Phone: ______________________

e-mail address: ____________________________________( Email information will be kept confidential )

Memberships: ____________ ($20 per membership of an individual or a family.)

Scholarship Donation: ____________ (Your donation will support scholarships for OPS pipers & drummers.)

Total: ____________ Please mail your check to: OPS Membership 19622 SE Cottonwood St. Milwaukie, OR 97267 BCPA & OPS MembershipsThe BC Pipers Association is giving a credit towards its membership dues if you have membership in the Oregon Piper’s Association. This is part of BCPA’s efforts to encourage support of the activities of the local piping societies. This year the credit will be $20 for Individual and Family memberships. Everyone is reminded that you need to be a member of Oregon Piper’s Society to get this credit. If questions contact Gary Warren at gary.warren@encoresl.com

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Please register me for the following OPS February Piping Workshop:

February 9th 9am – 4:30 pm Grade 4 & 5 Pipers $50

February 10th 9am – 4:30 pm Grade 3 & above Pipers $50

Location; OPS / VFW Hall at 837 SE Mill, Portland.

Name: ________________________________________________________Address:_______________________________________________________ City: __________________________________ State: ____________Zip: _________ Phone: __________________________________ Email: __________________________________

Please mail the attached registration form and check payable to Oregon Pipers’ Society to:Gary Warren

3117 NE 30th Ave.Portland, OR 97212

An email confirmation on your registration will be sent to you upon receipt of the registration form. Registration will be accepted the morning of the seminars dependent upon space availability so it is advisable to pre-register. Please call or email Gary Warren with any questions at 503-288-4937 or gary.warren@encoresl.com.

OPS February Piping WorkshopAlasdair Gillies, Instructor

Fin Moore will be the featured performer at the January 19th Oregon Piper’s Society event. Fin is described as a “piper, born & bred”. He plays the Highland pipes, Border pipes and Scottish Small Pipes. For five years, he played in the Vale of Atholl Juvenile Band. Fin is now a partner with his father, Hamish, as well respected makers of bellows small pipes, border pipes, and highland pipes. Fin is gaining a great reputation as a teacher of pipes, teaching at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton, the Lowland and Border Pipers Society annual teaching weekend in Melrose Scotland, at Piper Gathering North Hero, Vermont and other schools around the world. Fin will be one of the guest instructors teaching small pipes and border pipes at the Simon Fraser University Summer School, Piping Hot Summer Drummer in July 2008.

OregonPipers’Society

In Our 20th Year! Volume 20 - January 2008

PS NewsPS NewsIn this Issue:■ Fin Moore - January Featured Performer

■ TVFR Pipe Band

■ Student of the month

■ January Quartet Competition

■ Calendar of OPS events

■ Competition rules and mail-in registration form

■ Alasdair Gillies workshop mail-in registration form

■ OPS Membership form

■ January Drum workshop info.

Fin Moore to Headline January OPS

The Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Pipes and Drums were formed in 2000 as the first fire service pipe band in the Pacific Northwest. The band’s primary mission is to serve the region’s fire services by performing at various departmental ceremonies and services. Carrying on a tradition begun by the FDNY‘s Emerald Society in 1962, the TVFR’s orientation and music are both Irish and Scottish. Membership is restricted to either active duty or retired public safety providers, or their immediate family members. While the band carries the name of its host agency, 14 different public safety organizations are represented among its 25 performing members. The band is not subsidized by the fire agencies, but dependent upon donations and member contributions.

OPS Upcoming Events:

February 9Piping Workshop featuring Alasdair GilliesEnsemble performance by Sir James McDonald Pipe Band.

March 15Portland Metro Pipe Band will return as the ensemble band.

April 19Scheduled ensemble performance by the River City Pipe Band.

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Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Pipes and Drums January 19Oregon Pipers’ Society VFW Hall, 837 SE Mill, Portland5:00 PM - Solo Piping & Drumming contest7:30 PM - Program

Meeting Location:

Fin’s performing career covers top venues such as the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, the Edinburgh International Festival and the William Kennedy Piping Festival, Armagh.

He has played solo and with bands including Dannsa who are gaining great respect in Scotland and abroad for their traditional and innovating dancing, the internationally renowned Cape Breton band, Slainte Mhath, and Back of the Moon, winners at the traditional music awards 2003.Alistair Clark with The Scotsman stated “this boy was born to play a reel and when he

did so on the Scottish small pipes……he was magic”. We look forward to some of this magic on Saturday, January 19th.

The TVFR is well traveled having twice performed in Guadalajara, Mexico as part of a sister city visitation. Band members have also “opened” for the Dropkick Murphys on three occasions, including a St. Patrick’s

Eve performance in Boston in March 2007. More recently, members of the band traveled to Sitka, Alaska to perform with the Seattle Firefighters Pipes and Drums. The band has been featured at the World Beat Festival and the Yachats

Celtic Music Festival. To learn more about the band, visit its website at http://www.tvfrpipesndrums.org or www.tvfrpipesndrums.org or read the band profile posted at: http://www.firepiper.wordpress.com .

and jigs. The youngest competitor, Jesse Gray was not intimidated by the first two entries as he set a quieter mood with his small pipes. The audience then was introduced to the “great fat piper with the road kill sporran”, Ray Galloway. Erika Takeo brought the competition back to some respectability with a reel and hornpipe. Ted McKnight and Chris Donald performed a drum and pipe duet with a hornpipe and jig set. The final entry was the “River Valley Pipe Band” who looked very similar to the River City Pipe Band donning cowboy hats and bonnets. In respect to their new name, they shared Americana tunes “Red River Valley” and “Oh Susanna”. 45 members of the audience acted as the adjudicators for this event having completed their judging slips. First place as well the perpetual “pipe” trophy (a construct of plumbing pipe parts) was given to the “great fat piper” Ray Galloway. Second place was awarded to Chris Bollinger followed by third place to the “River Valley Pipe Band”.

December Program Highlights Jerry Gaidos with the Portland Police Highland Guard opened the December program by introducing Madeline Boyd as the Student of the Month. Madeline, who competes as a Grade 2 piper, opened with an MSR, finishing with a hornpipe and jig. The host band for December was the Portland Police Highland Guard under the direction of Pipe Sergeant Jacob MacIntyre. Consisting of five pipers and five drummers, they played a number of sets consisting of 2/4 marches, 9/8’s and jigs. Brian Kelly played a self-composed slow aire “Bonnie Aire”. Pipe Major Ken Jones was given a round of applause on the recent addition to his family of a baby girl.

The main event of the evening was Oregon Pipers’ Society’s 1st Annual Kitchen Piping Contest which had seven entries. Terry Raymond from Seattle led off with a set of marches and jigs. Chris Bollinger followed with a hornpipe

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Jerry Gaidos and the Portland Police Highland Guard

“great fat piper” Ray Galloway

Alasdair Gillies Announced as Instructor for the February Piping Workshop OPS is pleased to announce that champion piper Alasdair Gillies has agreed to be the instructor for the annual piping workshop scheduled for February 9th and 10th. Voted ‘Best Piper of the 20th Century’ by the readers of Piper & Drummer magazine, Alasdair Gillies is Director of the Pipes and Drums of Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Alasdair spent 17 years as piper and eventually Pipe Major with the Queen’s Own Highlanders, serving for many years as instructor to prepare recruits to be Regi-mental Pipers. When the Queen’s Own Highlanders and The Gordon Highlanders amalgamated to form The Highlanders, he became their first Pipe Major. He has had an astounding number of suc-cesses at piping competitions over the years. He has won every event he entered at the Northern Meeting in Inverness in 1986, and won the Inverness Former Winners March,

Strathspey & Reel event for the 11th time in 2003 (more than any other piper in history). In 2002 he won the Glenfiddich Championship MSR for the sixth time and the overall Cham-

pionship 3 times. He has won both Highland Society of London’s Gold medals, the Senior Piobaireachd at the Argyllshire Gathering and the Gold Clasp at the Northern Meeting. Alasdair holds the Pipe Majors Certificate, the Senior Teachers Certificate and the Graduate Certificate from the Institute of Piping. His solo recordings include Volume 12 of the World’s Greatest Pipers series, The Pipers of Distinction series, and a new CD Rom by Ceol Mor Software, titled ‘March Strathspey & Reel As Played By Alasdair Gillies’. The workshop is open to all pipers with grades 5 and 4 scheduled for Sat. 2/19 and grades 3 and above for Sun. 2/20. Location will be the OPS / VFW Hall at 837 SE Mill, Portland. See the attached mail in registration form for more details.

The OPS Student of the Month for January is drummer Garrett Bancroft. Garrett is a student of Joe Hewitt and is currently partici-pating in the Sir James McDonald PB Student Program. Garrett has had an instant love of pipe bands since his parents, Mark and Stephanie, became involved with Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue Pipes and Drums where Stephanie is a piper and Mark a tenor drummer with the band. Last summer Garrett competed solo for the first time at the Portland Highland Games in the grade 4 6/8 march competition. Garrett has had the opportunity to attend the HMA School in 2006 and 2007. He has been influenced greatly by the instructors and stu-dents there. Garrett says he really enjoys the school and that it’s been fun for him to work with instructors and other drummers and to challengehimself to “do it and do it better.” Garrett is in the 7th grade at Walt Morey Middle School in Troutdale where he also plays per-cussion in the school band and his favorite instrument is the timpani. Garrett says his training in Scottish style side drumming has also helped him with his school band percussion. His hobbies include paintball, video games, basketball, dirt biking and camping. Garrett has been plopped right smack dab in the middle of a very musical family, and just loves it!

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Piping Quartet Competition Scheduled for January OPS

Following in the footsteps of December’s successful “Kitchen Piping” competition, the January OPS main event will see the return of the popular Quartet competition. The competition has been expanded to include multiple grades. Both Grade 3 & 4 quartets will be playing an MSR (March, Strathspey & Reel). With Grade 3 quartets, each tune will have a minimum of four parts. Grade 4’s each tune can have two parts, played twice, or four parts each. Grade 5 quartets will play a Quick Marches Medley. Obviously, a Quartet is composed of four pipers. This group will not have the benefit (or deterrence dependent upon perspective) of a drum corp. Quartets are considered a difficult competition for bag-piping. It has many of the demands upon the participants for unison and coordination as a band competition. However, the size and make up of the group can be very exposing. There isn’t a drum corps to mask the sound of the bag-pipers, and with only four pipers, a simple mistake is very obvious. If you have a quartet which wishes to enter the competition, please contact Gary Warren at 503-288-4937 or gary.warren@encoresl.com.

Garrett with one of his favorite Instructors, John Scullion

Portland Police Highland Guard Burns Night Concert and Dinner Scheduled

for Friday, Jan. 18th

The Portland Police Highland Guard Pipe Band will be holding their annual Burns dinner on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at Vesta a very fine dining establishment in Vancouver Washington. Scottish Chef Fenton Morris will be preparing a eloquent meal that will be hosted by Geoffery Fraisure who brings his expertise of Robert Burns to relaxed evening of fine food, great wines and drams of scotch. Portland poet Scott Poole will be returning for the evening along with a mix of entertainment from the band and special guest artist from Scotland, Fin Moore performing on a mix of traditional Scottish bagpipes and highland dancing. Contact a PPHG band member for additional details or visit the band web site at;www.PortlandPoliceHighlandGuard.com

for additional details.

OPS Student of the Month

January Drum Workshop to Feature John Scullion

The bimonthly drumming workshop, held in conjunction with OPS, will be held on Sunday, January 20th. The workshop is being moved to Sunday this month to take advantage of World Champion drummer, John Scullion being in Portland. The workshop is open to bass, tenor and side drummers at all levels. Fee will be $40. per student. Tentative location will be the OPS hall at 837 SW Mill, Portland. Interested drummers should contact Joe Hewitt for more information at; 503 359-4237 or joe@spiritone.com

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OPS Competition Mail-in RegistrationName: ___________________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________________

City: ______________________________ State: _____ Zip: ______________

Day Phone: ____________________ Evening Phone: ___________________

e-mail address: ____________________________________________________

Oct. 20 ___________ Class: ___________________________ Fee: _________

Nov. 17 ___________ Class: ___________________________Fee: _________

Dec. 15 ___________ Class: ___________________________ Fee: _________

Jan. 19 ___________ Class: ___________________________Fee: _________

Feb. 9 No Competition this month

Mar. 15 __________ Class: ___________________________Fee: _________

Apr. 19 ___________ Class: ___________________________Fee: _________

TOTAL FEE ENCLOSED: _________

Mail-in Entries:The mail-in fee is $3 per competition date. Mail-in registration may be submitted for the entire season or for selected event dates.

Registrations must be received by the day before the date of competition (so mail early). Payment must accompany registration. (Sorry, there are no refunds for no shows.)

Day-of Entries:Entries will also be accepted on the date of the event until the check-in deadline and a fee of $5 will be charged.

For more information please call Brian MacMillanat (503) 691-6735. Makecheck payable to OPS and mail registration & check to:

Brian MacMillan4625 SW Chunut Ct.Tualatin, OR 97062-6719

All competitors must be prepared to play at check-in and to perform when requested to do so. The check-in times are as follows: Chanter and Grades 4 and 5 check in by 4:30 PM. Adult. Grades 1,2 and 3 check in by 5:00 PM. All Drummers check in by 5:30 PM. The order of play will follow reverse order of entry (first to enter is last to play, including the mail-in registrants). All contestants are required to play in recognizable Highland attire (except for Chanter class). Best of luck.

Mail in early and save!

Piping

Piping Judge- Raymond Galloway

Chanter, Any Tune1st Michah Sisson2nd Hunter Kern

Grade 5 Piping, 2/4 March1st Matt Rucker2nd Liam Bacon

3rd Robbie Johnston

Grade 3 Piping, Strathspey & Reel1st Craig Maxwell

Grade 1 Piping, MSRExhibition Christopher Donald

DECEMBER COMPETITON RESULTS

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Piping January 19 February 9 March 15 April 19

Chanter Slow Air 2/4 March Any Tune

MSR( submit 2 marches )

Piobaireachd( submit 2 )

Piobaireachd( submit 3 )

6/8 March 2/4 March

2/4 March

2/4 March

6/8 March

Hornpipe & Jig

Hornpipe & Jig MSR

MSR

6/8 March

6/8 March

Jig

2/4 March

6/8 March

Strathspey& Reel

WorkshopNo

Competition

Grade 4

Grade 1

Adult

Grade 5

Grade 2

Grade 3

6/8 March 2/4 March

6/8 March

MSR Drum Solo( 2-4 mins )

Grade 4

Grade 1

Grade 2

Beginner

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Tenor Drumming

SideDrumming

NoDrumming

This Month

NoDrumming

This Month

OPS 2007-2008 Competition Schedule

Please note some important changes to this year’s competition schedule and requirements. Schedule: October, December, & March - Piping 1, 3, 5 & Chanter. November, January & April will be Piping 2, 4, Adult, Chanter & Drumming. ( Detailed listing of events is shown in the chart below. )There will be no competition in February because of the planned workshop.

Times: Competitions will start at 5pm. 4:30pm check- in for Chanter, Grade 4 & 5 piping. 5:00pm check-in for all other piping competitors. Drummers check-in by 5:30pm.

Tune Requirements: All tunes for piping and drum-ming events are required to be 4 parts. Exceptions are all chanter class and grade 5 piping events where 2 parts of a tune played twice is permitted. Also note specific requirements for certain Grade 1& 2 piping events indi-cated in the chart below.

Membership: If you live in Oregon or the Portland metro area, including Vancouver WA, one needs to be a member of OPS in order to compete.

Awards will be given at intermission as in previous years.