“The small classes
made it easier to get questions answered. The music
book was excellent. The instructors were top-notch
with exceptional qualifications, each one different
in his teachings.”
Don Saraceno,
California session student
Dear pipers and
drummers,
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Balmoral
School of Piping & Drumming, I would like to
extend to you best wishes for the holiday season
and for a beneficial year of piping and drumming in
2010.
This past year was a year of many “firsts” for the
Balmoral School and the Balmoral Classic: The first
Pittsburgh summer session at Shady Side Academy;
the first US Junior Solo Snare Drumming
Championship; and the first time that former Scots
Guards P/M and world champion piper Brian Donaldson
joined the Balmoral instructional staff. Brian is
an award-winning student of pipers of the previous
generation, including his primary mentors, the
great John Burgess and the Balmoral piper Andrew
Pitkeathly. Brian is also the bagpipe maker and
proprietor of Inveran Bagpipes of
Auchtermuchty, Fife, Scotland. He donated one of
his splendid imitation ivory sets to the winner
of the Balmoral Classic US Junior Solo
Championship Piobaireachd competition, won by
Marshall German of Corona, California. Many
thanks, Brian!
Brian, a good friend of Alasdair Gillies, will be
teaching with Alasdair at all of the 2010 Balmoral
summer sessions.
After 16 good years at Thomas More College in
Crestview Hills, Kentucky we are moving the session
in that time-slot (June 20-25) to Macalester College in
St.Paul, Minnesota. We are indeed thankful that
this fine private institution, with a long
history of college pipe bands, is providing an
excellent location for a new summer session. We
look forward to working with the Macalester
College staff and the pipe major of the
Macalester pipe band, Mike Breidenbach.
I would like to suggest that the Balmoral/Thomas
More alumni consider the Naperville, Illinois
location at North Central College as a first-rate
location for continuing summer piping and drumming
studies. We have a modern dorm to ourselves on a
large campus and plenty of room to expand.
Alternately, the Pittsburgh session’s classes are
held in an excellent, recently constructed
facility.
I hasten to add that if we find another suitable
college or private academy in the Kentucky area,
southern Ohio, or even further south, we would be
happy to re-start the Kentucky-area session anew in
2011. Your suggestions are most welcome.
Principal piping instructors for all of the
Balmoral 2010 summer sessions are Alasdair Gillies
and Brian Donaldson. Gordon Bell will be teaching
drumming at the St. Paul, Minnesota, Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and week 1 of the East Stroudsburg,
Pennsylvania sessions. Additional drumming
instructors and assistant piping instructors will
be announced soon on this Web site.
The Balmoral School of Piping & Drumming each
year sponsors the Balmoral Classic, featuring
the Junior US Solo Bagpiping Championship and
the US Junior Solo Snare Drumming Championship.
Last year's event, the third annual, was again
held at the Hillman Center for the Performing
Arts at Shady Side Academy. For a complete list
of prize winners and an overview of the 2009
Balmoral Classic, please see BalmoralClassic.org.
Piper Anthony Masterson of Houston, Texas won
the EW Littlefield, Jr. Overall Trophy, a set of
McCallum bagpipes,
and a two-week full scholarship to the 2010
Balmoral School summer session of his choice.
Snare drummer Petey Lowrie of Brunswick, Ohio
won his color choice of a Pearl, Premier, or
Andante snare drum donated by Henderson Imports
of Traverse City, Michigan.
The Balmoral Classic finished with an outstanding
evening concert featuring the five-time Junior
World Champion St. Thomas’ Episcopal School Pipe
Band from Houston, Texas, including
dancers and supplemental musicians on guitars,
keyboard, drum kit, bass, and fiddle. Led by
Lyric Todkill, himself a Balmoral School piper,
instructor and graduate of the Carnegie Mellon
University Bachelor of Performing Arts in
Bagpipe Music, St. Thomas’ band will be in
Scotland during the summer of 2010 competing for
their sixth Junior World Championship title.
The next Balmoral Classic is scheduled to be held
on November 12-13, 2010 at Shady Side Academy's
Hillman Center for the Performing Arts. Pipers and
drummers under the age of 18 years who have
competed with success in the upper amateur grades
are encouraged to submit an application to the 2010
invitational event. The evening concert will
feature the Battlefield Band
from Scotland.
If you are interested in making a contribution to
sponsor a scholarship for a promising young piper
or drummer to attend the Balmoral School, please
contact the Balmoral office.
All contributions are tax-deductible.
Many thanks to the volunteers, staff, participants,
and contributors who help to make the Balmoral
summer sessions and the Balmoral Classic possible.
Best wishes for happy piping and drumming in 2010,
George Balderose
Executive Director
PS From the Balmoral muse: “Practice doesn’t
make perfect. Perfect practice makes
perfect!”