16th WKPF - 2009 WKPF

Armagh Pipers Club
14 Victoria Street
Armagh BT61 9DT
Northern Ireland

17th William Kennedy Piping Festival 11^th - 14^th November 2010, Armagh City

2009 WKPF - review

THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA

The spectacular Micheál Ó Súilleabháin concert in the packed Market Place Theatre main auditorium on Saturday night brought a new musical experience to Armagh through the performance of his 35 minute composition ‘Francesco Walks’ based on the music of 18th Century Italian composer Francesco Geminiani born 1687.

Geminiani spent a lot of time in Ireland and had quite an influence on the traditional musicians including the famous blind harper Turlough O Carolan. Micheál Ó Súilleabháin’s composition for piano/harpsichord, uilleann pipes, classical orchestra and traditional musicians playing fiddle and accordions, describes Francesco walking through Ireland meeting and playing with various local musicians until he comes to Armagh and meets the musicians of the Armagh Pipers Club.

Throughout the composition there is this interaction between the two musical genres and the whole piece is held together with the composer playing piano and harpsichord and a singer telling the narrative of the journey.

The whole performance was a truly magical experience that deeply moved everyone lucky enough to have got tickets for the night.

MULTI-FACETTED FESTIVAL

The 16th William Kennedy Piping Festival was a multi-facetted event bringing together pipers and musical genres from all over the world to celebrate the universal experience of music that knows no boundaries and unites people in the common bond of music.

Crucial to the success of this year’s Festival was the generous support of various funding bodies who supported different aspects of the programme including Armagh City & District Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund which supported events around the newly opened pipe making workshop, Foras na Gaeilge, Colmcille, Gael Linn, Ultach Trust, Arts Council NI, European Union, Armagh City Hotel, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the Donnelly Group.

DUETS CONCERT

Instituted last year for the first time the duets concert featuring the uilleann pipes along with various other instruments has proved one of the success stories in the continued development of the Festival. This year’s concert was opened by an American duo comprising, on pipes, Kieran O’Hare and Liz Knowles playing fiddle. Both Kieran and Liz have played with all the major dance groups including Riverdance and the Pirate Queen and are currently touring Europe with another dance group. They presented a beautifully balanced programme of airs, dance tunes and some really ancient music first published around the beginning of the 18th Century.

Kevin Crawford and Cillian Vallely recently launched their flute and pipes CD here in Armagh so were no strangers to Armagh audiences. Both have played together for many years in the band LUNASA which has played on a couple of occasions in the Festival.

The flute and pipes combination was very different to the fiddle and pipes sound and so we got a new set of harmonic interactions emerging. Cillian played both concert pitch pipes and ‘C’ pitched pipes which again produced a whole new dynamic with the lower pitch of flute which is rarely heard.

One of the themes of this year’s festival was the uilleann pipes diaspora with pipers from the USA, France and Brittany. The second half of the concert opened with a Breton duo with a pipes and accordion line up. Brothers Loic and Ronan Blejean come from Northern Brittany and so their repertoire included a lot of Breton dance music as well as some Irish traditional music. This unusual pairing produced some surprisingly complimentary intonations particularly in the Breton dance pieces.

The final performance of the night came from Tiarnan O Duinnchinn playing uilleann pipes and Paul O Shaughnessy on fiddle. Paul played for many years with the group Altan and his repertoire is heavily influenced by his Donegal family background. Tiarnan is also very much hooked on Donegal music so we had lots of Donegal Highlands played with great rhythmic precision particularly on the pipes where Tiarnan showed his absolute mastery of staccato playing that was always musical.

INTENSIVE ACTIVITY THROUGHOUT FRIDAY

Friday was the beginning of the really intensive part of the festival with non stop activity running throughout the rest of the weekend until late on Sunday night.

The very popular Lá na nGaelscoileanna started the day off with schools arriving at the Sherry’s Field complex for an interactive programme designed by Gael Linn organiser Reamonn Ó Ciaráin. On hand to assist with demonstrations and explanations were Irish Gaeilge and Scottish Gáidhlig musicians and singers Griogair Labhruidh and Sile Denvir, Lorcán Mac Mathúna and Maitiú Ó Casaide.

In addition to the programme at Sherry’s Field the children divided into their various school groups to visit the pipe making workshop at St Patrick’s Trian where master pipe maker Eamonn Curran took them through the various stages of pipe making from the initial selection of the right wood through to the metal working skills required and onto reed making and tuning. The school children also had an opportunity of visiting the permanent piping exhibition now installed at St Patrick’s Trian.

The highlight of the schools programme was the piping concert held in the main auditorium where the children heard a selection of music from the Irish, Scottish and Breton traditions.

SESSIONS-LECTURES-EXHIBITION- BBC BROADCAST

The Friday programme continued with sessions in the Stage Bar & Bistro as well as at De Averell House where musicians like Marc Pollier (French Uilleann Piper) Eliot Grasso (Uilleann piper from the USA) Ronan Le Bars (Breton Uilleann Piper) Griogar Labhruidh (Scottish piper & singer) Sile Denvir (Harp & songs) Tiarnan Ó Duinnchinn (Uilleann piper) and Kevin Crawford (Flute player) entertained enthusiastic audiences.

Meanwhile an all day exposition of the historic pipes made by the Belfast uilleann pipe maker Richard O Mealy continued in the foyer of the Trian with piping demonstrations, DVD films and inter-active discussion with people as they came and went.

The evening programme began with a presentation in the Rotunda Theatre of recordings from the RTE music archives of piping from the earliest days of Radio Eireann given by RTE presenter and piper Peter Browne.

The popular BBC bilingual programme ‘Blás’ was then transmitted live from the Stage Bar & Bistro introduced by BBC presenter Lynette Fay. This programme featured music from many of the Piping Festival guests as well as interviews with people like Armagh Piper’s Club music Director Eithne Vallely. Among the musicians who played were Mozaik led by the famous Andy Ervine giving a small sample of what was to come in the sold out main concert that night.

FESTIVAL CONCERT 1

Festival Concert 1 featuring the Brian Finnegan Band and Mozaik was a sell out event with many disappointed people who left it too late to look for tickets. For those who managed to get in,what a wonderful night of music they had,firstly from Armagh’s Brian Finnegan one of the most innovative flute players and composers in the world. His new band included top Scottish fiddler Aidan O’Rourke formerly with ‘Blazing Fiddles’, Ian Stephenson on Guitar and Jim Goodwin on drums. Their programme contained many of the tunes made famous by Brian’s former band Flook plus some new material and pieces composed by other musician composers like Mike McGoldrick. The introduction of Jarlath Henderson another product of the Armagh Pipers Club added a new dimension to the group and the crowd were left looking for more.

Mozaik then took to the stage for an hour long performance that ranged through an eclectic mixture of well known old Plantxty tunes to real American old time music and onto to haunting Eastern European music from Hungary, Roumania and Bulgaria . The sets featured a dazzling succession of breathtaking virtuosity with each member of the band surprising us time and time again whether it was Bruce Molsky playing fiddle to accompany his old time American songs, Nikola Parov playing everything from end blown flute, bowed Gadulka, wooden whistle to Bulgarian bagpipes, Rens van der Zalm on a variety of stringed instruments finally launching into an unbelievable piece of Roumanian virtuoso fiddle playing and all held together by the two men behind the success of the great group Planxty Andy Ervine and Donal Lunny. It was a wonderful night’s music that left the ecstatic audience shouting for more.

Then it was more sessions in the Stage Bar and Red Ned’s to round the night off.

THE SATURDAY PROGRAMME

The Saturday programme started off with classes and workshops based in St Malachy’s Primary School and St Patrick’s Trian offering a huge range of instrumental and vocal choices from a selection of 5 uilleann pipe groups to highland pipes with 3times All Ireland solo Champion Andy Carlisle, fiddle, flute and guitar master classes to reed making with master pipe maker Eamonn Curran who runs the new Armagh Pipers Club uilleann pipe making workshop. St Patrick’s Trian was the setting for the day long exploration of the Irish Gaeilge/ Scottish Gaáidhlig links through language, music and song from 10am through to 5pm.

At 1pm we had the usual lunchtime recital in the Stage Bar & Bistro while also at 1pm the hugely popular ‘Pipers and their Pipes’ event got underway at Armagh Public Library under the guiding hand of RTE presenter Peter Browne. This was a relaxed and informative event held in the wonderful 18th Century surroundings of one of Armagh’s most treasured buildings. For an hour we had tunes and interviews with three highly regarded pipers two Americans and a Frenchman - Eliot Grasso from Oregon, Jerry O’Sullivan from New York and Marc Pollier from north eastern France.

PIPING AT THE TRIAN

Everyone who visits the William Kennedy Piping Festival marvels at the wonderful selection of venues available each with its own special attraction. The Rotunda Theatre at St Patrick’s Trian has for 11 years been the venue for the acoustic winter series of concerts organised by the Armagh Pipers Club and is renowned for the quality of sound projection by both singers and instrumentalists. On Saturday it was the perfect venue for the Pipes and Songs Concert featuring piping and singing in the Gaelic language common to both Ireland and Scotland a cultural linguistic link stretching back a couple of millennia and as strong and vibrant today as 2000 years ago. Anna Murray from Lewes in the Outer Hebrides is a renowned Gáidhlig singer and piper and she was joined by another great Scottish Gael Griogair Labhruidh from Argylshire also a piper and singer. The Irish Gaels were representative oftwo great Irish Gaelic traditions those of Munster and Connaught with Lorcán MacMathúna and Sile Denvir. Also included in the line-up was uilleann piper Maitiu Ó Casaide. Foyle Radio presenter Brian Mullen compered this highly enjoyable recital.

The first of the two featured World Piping Concerts took place also in the Rotunda Theatre featuring for the first time at the Festival a Portuguese piping ensemble the dynamic Roncos do Diabo. They were joined by three times All Ireland solo Highland Piping Champion Andy Carlisle from the famous Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band. Andy played some great sets that included just about everything from a traditional march, strathspey and reel set to a virtuoso set of mostly Irish reels.

Then at 5pm the late afternoon session featured Ronan Browne and Jerry O’Sullivan on uilleann pipes and Anna Murray on Scottish small pipes. This was a wonderful relaxed session that held the packed audience enthralled.

FESTIVAL CONCERT 2

Micheál Ó Suilleabháin has long been recognised as the successor to the great Sean Ó Riadá but unlike Sean he has had nearly three decades of creative leadership behind him now and stands at the pinnacle of innovative practice in bringing the worlds of classical and traditional music together. His Armagh concert aimed to take that further with a first performance with the Armagh Pipers Club of his 35 minute long composition ‘Francesco Walks’. This piece was composed around the concept that the 17/18th composer Francesco Geminiani who lived in Ireland for some time takes in Armagh on one of his travels around the country meeting the traditional musicians along with his group of classical players. The traditional musicians in the performance on Saturday night were selected from the tutors at Armagh Pipers Club and the classical players were the Carolan String Orchestra with fiddles, viola, cello and French Horns. The Armagh Pipers Club group included on Fiddle Rosie Smyth, Thomas Smyth, Sheila O’Connor, Emmet Mulholland, Niall Murphy, Eithne Vallely, Martina Murphy and Justin Toner and on accordions Gerry Lappin and Caroline Judge. Tiarnan Duinnchinn played uilleann pipes and the vocalist was Grace Toland.

This was a wonderfully evocative piece tracing the known influence Geminiani had on the traditional music of the day through the musical encounters of the two groups who interacted with their various interpretations of the music.

At the apex of all this was the maestro himself Micheál Ó Suilleabhain conducting and playing variously on piano and harpsichord.

The concert also featured other compositions of Micheál’s with Cillian Vallely on Uilleann Pipes and Mel Mercier on a variety of percussion including bones and bodhrán.

FINAL DAY’S PROGRAMME

Once again the day started off early with another dozen or so workshops/classes in St Malachy’s Primary and St Patrick’s Trian. A full afternoon’s programme started off with the very popular lunchtime recital in the Stage Bar & Bistro followed by the World piping Concert 2 in the Studio Theatre. This featured the Breton duo of Ronan Le Bars on uilleann pipes and Nicolas Quemener on guitar. This was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the festival as Le Bars gave a stunning performance including a marvellous ‘Green fields of Canada’. Fraser Fiefield after a morning taking pupils through an intensive ensemble workshop gave a virtuoso and varied performance utilising all his many instrumental skills in the company of yet another virtuoso Scottish musician Ali Hutton.

The second half of the concert featured the Basque group ‘Alboka’ named after the pipes made out of the horn of a sheep or some such animal. This was the first time the Basque’s had made it to the Festival and hopefully it won’t be the last. Their music and culture is based on a language that has no connection to any other European language most of which come from the Indo-European tradition. Their survival in the northern mountains of the Iberian peninsula and extending on both sides of the Pyrenees and surrounded on three sides by Spain with the Bay of Biscay to the North is one of the great stories of cultural tenacity. Their eagerly awaited performance didn’t disappoint and the addition later in their programme of multi instrumentalist and innovator CORMAC Breatnach whose mother was Basque brought another dimension to the concert.

De Averell House was the venue for another late afternoon session featuring uilleann pipers like Ronan Le Bars and Armagh Pipers Club former pupils Cillian Vallely, Chris McMullan and current tutor Tiarnan O Duinnchinn.They were joined by Kevin Crawford on Flute and Nicolas Quemener on guitar.

CATHEDRAL SERVICE

While there have been concerts over the years in the Cathedral this was the first time that an actual service for the Piping Festival had been held. It was initially the idea of organist Theo Saunders and was endorsed by the Dean the Very Reverend Patrick Rooke. The service involved various elements including the organist Mr Saunders, the Armagh Pipers Club children’s choir with solists Aine Mallon and Laura Henderson, the Pipers Club junior instrumental group including uilleann piper Conor Mallon. Psalms and hymns were sung in both Irish Gaeilge ‘Moladh sé an Tiarna’ (P 150 Praise the Lord) music composed by piper Tiranán Ó Duinnchinn and Scottish Gaidhlig ‘Síth Chríost’ (A Scottish Blessing) with words from Carmina Gadelica and music by Maggie Macinnes.

Finally there were readings by Armagh Pipers Club members Sally Walmsley Pledl and Eamonn Curran. The Dean led the service and the prayers were by the Reverend Grace Clunie Director of Celtic Spirituality in the Church of Ireland.

THE UILLEANN PIPES CONCERT

The uilleann pipes concert has traditionally concluded the festival and this year was no different with the very popular showcase of the best in uilleann piping. This year had a difference in that no Irish pipers were featured with instead a selection of 6 pipers representing the United States, Brittany and France. All the pipers elected to present very different programmes of music played on a variety of pipes ranging from chanters tuned to concert pitch right down to ‘B’. The result was one of most enjoyable concerts for many years showing both great virtuosity in chanter work and imaginative use of regulators often absent even in the playing of top pipers. The Bretons included Loic Bléjean and Ronan Le Bars, France was represented by Marc Pollier and the USA had three pipers Jerry O’Sullivan from New York, Eliot Grasso from Oregon and Kieran O’Hare from Chicago. It was a fitting conclusion to a very successful and memorable festival that has left people wondering how can it be improved. One thing is certain there will be a Festival next year and the dates already booked are 11th to the 14th November 2010.

THANKS

It would be invidious to single out individuals in an effort that required the co-operation of so many in implementing the dozens of jobs necessary for the success of the Festival from meeting artists at various airports, supervising classes, manning doors, selling raffle tickets, running the shop, ensuring artists were looked after during concerts, working behind the stage and the countless other jobs that arose as the weekend progressed. Armagh Pipers Club is deeply indebted to all those volunteers who ensured the success of the festival. One comment we heard all weekend from the visitors from all over the world was how beautiful Armagh was, how lucky we were to have such beautiful venues, how friendly and hospitable everyone was and how much they enjoyed the experience whether they came from the West coast of America or the North of Canada, or Japan, or Australia or any one of the many European countries represented. The William Kennedy Piping Festival has certainly put Armagh on the world map and everyone is looking forward to next year.

home • e-mail Armagh Pipers Club links Trad @ the Trian WKPF about• william kennedy• recordings• previous years• accommodation• contact• Armagh Pipers Club 14 Victoria Street Armagh BT61 9DT Northern Ireland	17th William Kennedy Piping Festival 11^th - 14^th November 2010, Armagh City
	2009 WKPF - review
	THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA The spectacular Micheál Ó Súilleabháin concert in the packed Market Place Theatre main auditorium on Saturday night brought a new musical experience to Armagh through the performance of his 35 minute composition ‘Francesco Walks’ based on the music of 18th Century Italian composer Francesco Geminiani born 1687. Geminiani spent a lot of time in Ireland and had quite an influence on the traditional musicians including the famous blind harper Turlough O Carolan. Micheál Ó Súilleabháin’s composition for piano/harpsichord, uilleann pipes, classical orchestra and traditional musicians playing fiddle and accordions, describes Francesco walking through Ireland meeting and playing with various local musicians until he comes to Armagh and meets the musicians of the Armagh Pipers Club. Throughout the composition there is this interaction between the two musical genres and the whole piece is held together with the composer playing piano and harpsichord and a singer telling the narrative of the journey. The whole performance was a truly magical experience that deeply moved everyone lucky enough to have got tickets for the night. MULTI-FACETTED FESTIVAL The 16th William Kennedy Piping Festival was a multi-facetted event bringing together pipers and musical genres from all over the world to celebrate the universal experience of music that knows no boundaries and unites people in the common bond of music. Crucial to the success of this year’s Festival was the generous support of various funding bodies who supported different aspects of the programme including Armagh City & District Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund which supported events around the newly opened pipe making workshop, Foras na Gaeilge, Colmcille, Gael Linn, Ultach Trust, Arts Council NI, European Union, Armagh City Hotel, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and the Donnelly Group. DUETS CONCERT Instituted last year for the first time the duets concert featuring the uilleann pipes along with various other instruments has proved one of the success stories in the continued development of the Festival. This year’s concert was opened by an American duo comprising, on pipes, Kieran O’Hare and Liz Knowles playing fiddle. Both Kieran and Liz have played with all the major dance groups including Riverdance and the Pirate Queen and are currently touring Europe with another dance group. They presented a beautifully balanced programme of airs, dance tunes and some really ancient music first published around the beginning of the 18th Century. Kevin Crawford and Cillian Vallely recently launched their flute and pipes CD here in Armagh so were no strangers to Armagh audiences. Both have played together for many years in the band LUNASA which has played on a couple of occasions in the Festival. The flute and pipes combination was very different to the fiddle and pipes sound and so we got a new set of harmonic interactions emerging. Cillian played both concert pitch pipes and ‘C’ pitched pipes which again produced a whole new dynamic with the lower pitch of flute which is rarely heard. One of the themes of this year’s festival was the uilleann pipes diaspora with pipers from the USA, France and Brittany. The second half of the concert opened with a Breton duo with a pipes and accordion line up. Brothers Loic and Ronan Blejean come from Northern Brittany and so their repertoire included a lot of Breton dance music as well as some Irish traditional music. This unusual pairing produced some surprisingly complimentary intonations particularly in the Breton dance pieces. The final performance of the night came from Tiarnan O Duinnchinn playing uilleann pipes and Paul O Shaughnessy on fiddle. Paul played for many years with the group Altan and his repertoire is heavily influenced by his Donegal family background. Tiarnan is also very much hooked on Donegal music so we had lots of Donegal Highlands played with great rhythmic precision particularly on the pipes where Tiarnan showed his absolute mastery of staccato playing that was always musical. INTENSIVE ACTIVITY THROUGHOUT FRIDAY Friday was the beginning of the really intensive part of the festival with non stop activity running throughout the rest of the weekend until late on Sunday night. The very popular Lá na nGaelscoileanna started the day off with schools arriving at the Sherry’s Field complex for an interactive programme designed by Gael Linn organiser Reamonn Ó Ciaráin. On hand to assist with demonstrations and explanations were Irish Gaeilge and Scottish Gáidhlig musicians and singers Griogair Labhruidh and Sile Denvir, Lorcán Mac Mathúna and Maitiú Ó Casaide. In addition to the programme at Sherry’s Field the children divided into their various school groups to visit the pipe making workshop at St Patrick’s Trian where master pipe maker Eamonn Curran took them through the various stages of pipe making from the initial selection of the right wood through to the metal working skills required and onto reed making and tuning. The school children also had an opportunity of visiting the permanent piping exhibition now installed at St Patrick’s Trian. The highlight of the schools programme was the piping concert held in the main auditorium where the children heard a selection of music from the Irish, Scottish and Breton traditions. SESSIONS-LECTURES-EXHIBITION- BBC BROADCAST The Friday programme continued with sessions in the Stage Bar & Bistro as well as at De Averell House where musicians like Marc Pollier (French Uilleann Piper) Eliot Grasso (Uilleann piper from the USA) Ronan Le Bars (Breton Uilleann Piper) Griogar Labhruidh (Scottish piper & singer) Sile Denvir (Harp & songs) Tiarnan Ó Duinnchinn (Uilleann piper) and Kevin Crawford (Flute player) entertained enthusiastic audiences. Meanwhile an all day exposition of the historic pipes made by the Belfast uilleann pipe maker Richard O Mealy continued in the foyer of the Trian with piping demonstrations, DVD films and inter-active discussion with people as they came and went. The evening programme began with a presentation in the Rotunda Theatre of recordings from the RTE music archives of piping from the earliest days of Radio Eireann given by RTE presenter and piper Peter Browne. The popular BBC bilingual programme ‘Blás’ was then transmitted live from the Stage Bar & Bistro introduced by BBC presenter Lynette Fay. This programme featured music from many of the Piping Festival guests as well as interviews with people like Armagh Piper’s Club music Director Eithne Vallely. Among the musicians who played were Mozaik led by the famous Andy Ervine giving a small sample of what was to come in the sold out main concert that night. FESTIVAL CONCERT 1 Festival Concert 1 featuring the Brian Finnegan Band and Mozaik was a sell out event with many disappointed people who left it too late to look for tickets. For those who managed to get in,what a wonderful night of music they had,firstly from Armagh’s Brian Finnegan one of the most innovative flute players and composers in the world. His new band included top Scottish fiddler Aidan O’Rourke formerly with ‘Blazing Fiddles’, Ian Stephenson on Guitar and Jim Goodwin on drums. Their programme contained many of the tunes made famous by Brian’s former band Flook plus some new material and pieces composed by other musician composers like Mike McGoldrick. The introduction of Jarlath Henderson another product of the Armagh Pipers Club added a new dimension to the group and the crowd were left looking for more. Mozaik then took to the stage for an hour long performance that ranged through an eclectic mixture of well known old Plantxty tunes to real American old time music and onto to haunting Eastern European music from Hungary, Roumania and Bulgaria . The sets featured a dazzling succession of breathtaking virtuosity with each member of the band surprising us time and time again whether it was Bruce Molsky playing fiddle to accompany his old time American songs, Nikola Parov playing everything from end blown flute, bowed Gadulka, wooden whistle to Bulgarian bagpipes, Rens van der Zalm on a variety of stringed instruments finally launching into an unbelievable piece of Roumanian virtuoso fiddle playing and all held together by the two men behind the success of the great group Planxty Andy Ervine and Donal Lunny. It was a wonderful night’s music that left the ecstatic audience shouting for more. Then it was more sessions in the Stage Bar and Red Ned’s to round the night off. THE SATURDAY PROGRAMME The Saturday programme started off with classes and workshops based in St Malachy’s Primary School and St Patrick’s Trian offering a huge range of instrumental and vocal choices from a selection of 5 uilleann pipe groups to highland pipes with 3times All Ireland solo Champion Andy Carlisle, fiddle, flute and guitar master classes to reed making with master pipe maker Eamonn Curran who runs the new Armagh Pipers Club uilleann pipe making workshop. St Patrick’s Trian was the setting for the day long exploration of the Irish Gaeilge/ Scottish Gaáidhlig links through language, music and song from 10am through to 5pm. At 1pm we had the usual lunchtime recital in the Stage Bar & Bistro while also at 1pm the hugely popular ‘Pipers and their Pipes’ event got underway at Armagh Public Library under the guiding hand of RTE presenter Peter Browne. This was a relaxed and informative event held in the wonderful 18th Century surroundings of one of Armagh’s most treasured buildings. For an hour we had tunes and interviews with three highly regarded pipers two Americans and a Frenchman - Eliot Grasso from Oregon, Jerry O’Sullivan from New York and Marc Pollier from north eastern France. PIPING AT THE TRIAN Everyone who visits the William Kennedy Piping Festival marvels at the wonderful selection of venues available each with its own special attraction. The Rotunda Theatre at St Patrick’s Trian has for 11 years been the venue for the acoustic winter series of concerts organised by the Armagh Pipers Club and is renowned for the quality of sound projection by both singers and instrumentalists. On Saturday it was the perfect venue for the Pipes and Songs Concert featuring piping and singing in the Gaelic language common to both Ireland and Scotland a cultural linguistic link stretching back a couple of millennia and as strong and vibrant today as 2000 years ago. Anna Murray from Lewes in the Outer Hebrides is a renowned Gáidhlig singer and piper and she was joined by another great Scottish Gael Griogair Labhruidh from Argylshire also a piper and singer. The Irish Gaels were representative oftwo great Irish Gaelic traditions those of Munster and Connaught with Lorcán MacMathúna and Sile Denvir. Also included in the line-up was uilleann piper Maitiu Ó Casaide. Foyle Radio presenter Brian Mullen compered this highly enjoyable recital. The first of the two featured World Piping Concerts took place also in the Rotunda Theatre featuring for the first time at the Festival a Portuguese piping ensemble the dynamic Roncos do Diabo. They were joined by three times All Ireland solo Highland Piping Champion Andy Carlisle from the famous Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band. Andy played some great sets that included just about everything from a traditional march, strathspey and reel set to a virtuoso set of mostly Irish reels. Then at 5pm the late afternoon session featured Ronan Browne and Jerry O’Sullivan on uilleann pipes and Anna Murray on Scottish small pipes. This was a wonderful relaxed session that held the packed audience enthralled. FESTIVAL CONCERT 2 Micheál Ó Suilleabháin has long been recognised as the successor to the great Sean Ó Riadá but unlike Sean he has had nearly three decades of creative leadership behind him now and stands at the pinnacle of innovative practice in bringing the worlds of classical and traditional music together. His Armagh concert aimed to take that further with a first performance with the Armagh Pipers Club of his 35 minute long composition ‘Francesco Walks’. This piece was composed around the concept that the 17/18th composer Francesco Geminiani who lived in Ireland for some time takes in Armagh on one of his travels around the country meeting the traditional musicians along with his group of classical players. The traditional musicians in the performance on Saturday night were selected from the tutors at Armagh Pipers Club and the classical players were the Carolan String Orchestra with fiddles, viola, cello and French Horns. The Armagh Pipers Club group included on Fiddle Rosie Smyth, Thomas Smyth, Sheila O’Connor, Emmet Mulholland, Niall Murphy, Eithne Vallely, Martina Murphy and Justin Toner and on accordions Gerry Lappin and Caroline Judge. Tiarnan Duinnchinn played uilleann pipes and the vocalist was Grace Toland. This was a wonderfully evocative piece tracing the known influence Geminiani had on the traditional music of the day through the musical encounters of the two groups who interacted with their various interpretations of the music. At the apex of all this was the maestro himself Micheál Ó Suilleabhain conducting and playing variously on piano and harpsichord. The concert also featured other compositions of Micheál’s with Cillian Vallely on Uilleann Pipes and Mel Mercier on a variety of percussion including bones and bodhrán. FINAL DAY’S PROGRAMME Once again the day started off early with another dozen or so workshops/classes in St Malachy’s Primary and St Patrick’s Trian. A full afternoon’s programme started off with the very popular lunchtime recital in the Stage Bar & Bistro followed by the World piping Concert 2 in the Studio Theatre. This featured the Breton duo of Ronan Le Bars on uilleann pipes and Nicolas Quemener on guitar. This was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the festival as Le Bars gave a stunning performance including a marvellous ‘Green fields of Canada’. Fraser Fiefield after a morning taking pupils through an intensive ensemble workshop gave a virtuoso and varied performance utilising all his many instrumental skills in the company of yet another virtuoso Scottish musician Ali Hutton. The second half of the concert featured the Basque group ‘Alboka’ named after the pipes made out of the horn of a sheep or some such animal. This was the first time the Basque’s had made it to the Festival and hopefully it won’t be the last. Their music and culture is based on a language that has no connection to any other European language most of which come from the Indo-European tradition. Their survival in the northern mountains of the Iberian peninsula and extending on both sides of the Pyrenees and surrounded on three sides by Spain with the Bay of Biscay to the North is one of the great stories of cultural tenacity. Their eagerly awaited performance didn’t disappoint and the addition later in their programme of multi instrumentalist and innovator CORMAC Breatnach whose mother was Basque brought another dimension to the concert. De Averell House was the venue for another late afternoon session featuring uilleann pipers like Ronan Le Bars and Armagh Pipers Club former pupils Cillian Vallely, Chris McMullan and current tutor Tiarnan O Duinnchinn.They were joined by Kevin Crawford on Flute and Nicolas Quemener on guitar. CATHEDRAL SERVICE While there have been concerts over the years in the Cathedral this was the first time that an actual service for the Piping Festival had been held. It was initially the idea of organist Theo Saunders and was endorsed by the Dean the Very Reverend Patrick Rooke. The service involved various elements including the organist Mr Saunders, the Armagh Pipers Club children’s choir with solists Aine Mallon and Laura Henderson, the Pipers Club junior instrumental group including uilleann piper Conor Mallon. Psalms and hymns were sung in both Irish Gaeilge ‘Moladh sé an Tiarna’ (P 150 Praise the Lord) music composed by piper Tiranán Ó Duinnchinn and Scottish Gaidhlig ‘Síth Chríost’ (A Scottish Blessing) with words from Carmina Gadelica and music by Maggie Macinnes. Finally there were readings by Armagh Pipers Club members Sally Walmsley Pledl and Eamonn Curran. The Dean led the service and the prayers were by the Reverend Grace Clunie Director of Celtic Spirituality in the Church of Ireland. THE UILLEANN PIPES CONCERT The uilleann pipes concert has traditionally concluded the festival and this year was no different with the very popular showcase of the best in uilleann piping. This year had a difference in that no Irish pipers were featured with instead a selection of 6 pipers representing the United States, Brittany and France. All the pipers elected to present very different programmes of music played on a variety of pipes ranging from chanters tuned to concert pitch right down to ‘B’. The result was one of most enjoyable concerts for many years showing both great virtuosity in chanter work and imaginative use of regulators often absent even in the playing of top pipers. The Bretons included Loic Bléjean and Ronan Le Bars, France was represented by Marc Pollier and the USA had three pipers Jerry O’Sullivan from New York, Eliot Grasso from Oregon and Kieran O’Hare from Chicago. It was a fitting conclusion to a very successful and memorable festival that has left people wondering how can it be improved. One thing is certain there will be a Festival next year and the dates already booked are 11th to the 14th November 2010. THANKS It would be invidious to single out individuals in an effort that required the co-operation of so many in implementing the dozens of jobs necessary for the success of the Festival from meeting artists at various airports, supervising classes, manning doors, selling raffle tickets, running the shop, ensuring artists were looked after during concerts, working behind the stage and the countless other jobs that arose as the weekend progressed. Armagh Pipers Club is deeply indebted to all those volunteers who ensured the success of the festival. One comment we heard all weekend from the visitors from all over the world was how beautiful Armagh was, how lucky we were to have such beautiful venues, how friendly and hospitable everyone was and how much they enjoyed the experience whether they came from the West coast of America or the North of Canada, or Japan, or Australia or any one of the many European countries represented. The William Kennedy Piping Festival has certainly put Armagh on the world map and everyone is looking forward to next year.