Inverness Piping Society is to pilot an event in the city at the end of July 2006 designed to raise awareness of an interest in piping and pipe music. The Piping Fèis will take place on the 29th July in Inverness’s Town House and will feature a range of different attractions principally a fascinating evening recital in which Fred Morrison will explore the music of different piping traditions including the Highland Bagpipe, Border pipes and Uillean pipes. Fred is a well-known exponent of the art and has a remarkable record as a competitor having won many of the major piping prizes. He is also an accomplished small-pipe player and more recently his interests have extended into the manufacture of the highly-praised Fred Morrison Reelpipes. Perhaps unusually for a Highland piper, Fred also plays the instrument associated with the Irish piping tradition, the Uillean pipes. During this evening performance Fred will be joined by Fiona Mackenzie and her clàrsach-playing daughter Katie. They will explore the links between Gaelic song and piping. Ronan Martin, a fine traditional fiddler from Skye, will also take the stage to demonstrate how piping has influenced the fiddling tradition in Scotland and vice versa.

During the afternoon an exhibition on the world of piping will take place and this will also include illustrated talks on Highland bagpiping, the launch of a new collection of pipe music (Angus MacPhee’s Crunluath Collection), a demonstration of pipe music software and live performances on the small-pipes by Angus Nicolson from Skye. To add to the general pipe music atmosphere of the day, a quartet of young pipers, all pupils of the schools’ piping tutor, Niall Matheson will play outside the Town House during the afternoon.

This year’s Piping Fèis is a ‘dry-run’ for bigger events which will take place during the Year of Highland Culture in 2007. Inverness Piping Society member Donald Smith explains, “It would be very remiss of the Highland Year of Culture not to feature piping events and to ensure that the instrument has a proper profile during the celebrations the Society is planning a couple of major events for next year. This year’s Fèis is to an extent designed to try out some ideas but we believe that it will be a really enjoyable event in its own right. The mix of attractions brought together for the Fèis is an attractive one and we are sure that pipers and non-pipers, piping enthusiasts and those who know little of the instrument and its associated traditions will all get a lot from the Fèis.”

The exhibition will be in the Town House between 2pm and 5pm, Saturday 29th July and the concert/recital is in the same venue starting at 8pm. The former event is free and tickets for the latter can be bought on the evening itself. 

 
For further information contact Cailean Maclean Cailean@skye-media.com  01470 532481