WinterStorm 2008

The annual WinterStorm competitions, workshops and concert took place on January 11-13, 2008 at the Kansas City Plaza Marriott, Holiday Inn and the Community Christian Church. This was the seventh year of the event, which has been competently managed and expanded each year into one of the premiere Scottish piping and drumming events in the country - if not the World. Competitors from all over the United States and Canada and even Ireland and Scotland took part in the competitions on Friday. Saturday hosted some of the world's greatest pipers and drummers in workshops that taught music, technique and performance aspects of the highly technical Scottish idiom to students from all over the U.S. and Canada. As one piper from Ohio commented in Fred Morrison's Reelpipe class, "Since Fred was going to be this close, I knew it was something that I couldn't miss."

It was my third visit to WinterStorm, but my first year as a volunteer. I even managed to persuade my wife to join me in volunteering and lauded her skills beforehand to Beth Wilson, the volunteer coordinator. My wife proved to be such an excellent asset in the merchandising area and Beth such a competent delegator-of-authority with the other volunteers that I felt like the proverbial third wheel for much of the morning on Saturday. Consequently, I playfully teased Shannon as she sold her umpteenth CD by parroting her friendly, parting comment "Enjoy your new CD."
"Just a little value-added service," she promptly retorted.

Joining WinterStorm as piping instructors again this year were the highland piping dream team of Gold Medallists including Angus MacColl, Fred Morrison, Stuart Liddell, Colin MacLellan, Mike Cusack, John Cairns, Chris Armstrong and Jack Lee. The workshops focused mainly on equipping students with competition-standard tunes and traditional technique except for Fred Morrison's reel pipe class, which focused on the bellows-driven border pipes and Scottish smallpipes. Drumming workshops were equally staffed with a superlative collection of drumming gurus including J. Reid Maxwell, Duncan Gibson and Norman "Haggis" MacLeod.

Of all my jobs as a volunteer - official "closer of the door to the piobaireachd and light music events," unofficial snare drum transporter / dead weight gooney, official door shutter to the tuning rooms during the concert, and unofficial repacker / breaker down of the poster board display (again, so sorry about destroying the wrong board, Beth) - my favorite task all weekend was as Fred Morrison's official "right-hand man" and photocopy lackey. Two of the other students immediately offered to loan me their extra sets of bagpipes so I could play along. Fred did a wonderful job of including many different skill levels of players in the musical conversation regarding variations of "Hector the Hero" - a tune that I learned from a recording of Fred, himself, playing on the "Broken Chanter" - while keeping the overall tone of the workshop encouraging and challenging to all levels.

The concert Saturday evening was, once again, a highlight for the entire weekend. The opening soundtrack and march of the drummers set the perfect mood for the concert as the martial rhythm of drums have done for generations.(Watch the drum major's baton as he twirls the hefty device around his back and up in the air again and again!) However, this night the focus was in the creation of a musicial fellowship. Several outstanding performances include Fred Morrison on the reel pipes and low whistle, Stuart Liddell playing Gordon Duncan's "Thunderstruck" on the highland pipe, Chris Armstrong / Barry Wilson's bewitching rhythmic dual on the pipes and drums and the 78th Fraser's brilliant arrangement of pipes and drums on "Trip to Skye".

In the modern days of the "Robopipe" with synthetic drone reeds, synthetic bags and even synthetic bagpipes instead of the traditional cane, hide and wood materials, it is fascinating to watch a master piper explore the incredibly subtle nuances of tuning a modern bagpipe before a performance. For example, the affects that moisture once had on the cane, hide and wood are no longer as dramatic an issue, so spectators get the impression that an extended tuning phase of the instrument is more for the comfort of the performer than the variability of the instrument. It's a small wonder that anyone even attempted the traditional highland bagpipe in the days that you would get disqualified from the contest for a single stopped tenor drone! (Well, you'd still get disqualified, but synthetic drone reeds take much of the guesswork out of the equation.)

Performers, competitors, judges and audience alike were equally wowed by another successful WinterStorm weekend. As Ken Eller, the always dignified and masterful master-of-ceremonies commented, "I thought of a new tune name 'Awestruck on Thunderstruck'!" The same awe could be felt during the entire concert. As one gruntled volunteer commented, "I have neven been happier to be an official photocopy lackey and water trap emptier for these musical heavyweights at this must-see event of the year." Event organizers have set next year's date of January 16 – 18, 2009. More information can be found at winterstorm.net.