By Caven Clark
The Arizona Uilleann Pipers' Society is hosting a workshop, October 14-15, 2000. Piper Patrick D'Arcy of the Southern California Uilleann Pipers' Club will be providing instruction for beginning uilleann pipers, featuring fingering technique, tuning, and maintenance. The workshop will be held at Ireland's Kitchen, 1219 East Glendale Avenue, Phoenix. There will also be a ceilidh, also at Ireland's Kitchen, Saturday evening featuring pipes of all sorts. For registration information and information on the organization, workshop, and ceilidh, contact Caven Clark at 602/279-0678 (evenings before 9pm) or email at azuilleann@yahoo.com.
The workshop will be taught by Patrick D'Arcy. Patrick was "born, bred, and buttered" in Dublin, Ireland. Growing up he learned the guitar, but always had a fascination with the rare and beautiful uilleann pipes. Later in life Patrick set up home in Los Angeles. On this side of the Atlantic, like many Irish emigrants, he found himself getting a stronger interest in Irish traditional music and decided it was time to learn to play the pipes. After a great deal of research he ordered as set made by pipe maker Eugene Lambe, Fanore, Co. Clare. On his arrival in California, he could find one piper from which to get advice. It was then that he with some friends formed the Southern California Pipers' Club; a club for interested people to gain knowledge about the uilleann pipes and its music. Patrick will also be performing at the Third Annual Arizona Highland Celtic Festival at Wheeler Park n Flagstaff, July 22.
The Arizona Uilleann Pipers' Society formed in April 2000 to promote the playing of Ireland's unique bellows-blown bagpipe, the uilleann (pronounced illin) pipes. While there are fewer than twenty known uilleann pipers and would-be uilleann pipers in Arizona, interest and enthusiasm is high as bagpipes of all descriptions gain in popularity. For example, the first Arizona workshop for the Highland Bagpipe held in February of this year by the Arizona Society of Pipers and Drummers drew 50 pipers from throughout the state. The less common uilleann pipes have two octaves whereas the Highland pipes have but one and are played with a bellows and bag where the Highlands are mouth-blown. Although the repertoires of the two overlap, there are significant differences in style and presentation, and most will agree that the expressiveness of the uilleann pipes is unmatched in the world of the bagpipe (check out the recordings of the Chieftains, Davey Spillane, Paddy Keenan, Finbar Furey, and Liam O'Flynn to name a few).
For information on the uilleann pipes and piping, visit these websites:
Cumann na bPiobairi (Seattle)
Na Piobari Uilleann (Dublin)
Southern California Pipers Club
This site hosted by FASTQ
This site © 1999
Arizona Irish Music Society
