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Upcoming Events

There are some events organized by the BC Uilleann Pipers' Society, others by some of the many folk music organizations in the province. This page describes upcoming and past events. There are lots of pictures, so it may take a bit to download. 

Monthly Meetings Updates

The meeting for April 2005 will be held in Langley at Greg Schnider's place. The address is 4526 220th Street. (604-514-0883). The meeting is scheduled for 1:00-5:00 on Saturday April 30. Bring your instruments and reedmaking supplies.

Inaugural Meeting - September 25, 1999, Langley, B.C.

Our first ever meeting was held on September 25, 1999 in Langley B.C. There was a great turnout with many of the pipers in BC attending. An article on the event appeared in Fall 1999 edition of The Pipers' Review. The obligatory group photo for the event is shown below. 

Back Row (L to R): Doug Arthur, Wally Charm, Kerry Grozier
Middle Row (L to R): Kevin McEvoy, John Walsh, Tom Kinahan, Greg Schnider, Brian Gallagher, Rob Moore
Front Row (L to R): Bill Poppy, Kier Macmillan, Tim Fanning, Chris MacCollister

A session was held at The Irish Heather Bistro and Irish House following the meeting. Some of the photos from this event are below.

	John Walsh and Kier McMillan		Bill Poppy playing his O'Grady 3/4 set, Peter Huron on guitar and Greg Schnider
	Kier McMillan playing his O'Grady half-set		John Walsh with his Taylor set.
	Greg Schnider playing Tom Kinahan's Froment set with Linda Charm		A close up of Bill Poppy.
	The session at the Irish Heather.

Martin Nolan Workshop - January 15, 2000, Cobble Hill, B.C.

Martin Nolan, Dublin piper, was in Nanaimo for the holidays visiting relatives and we were fortunate to host him for a piping workshop on January 15, 2000 at Rob Moore's place in Cobble Hill.

Martin presented a number of exercises to all the pipers before breaking off into one-on-one sessions with each of them.

An article of the event was published in the Summer 2000 edition of The Pipers' Review.

A video of the event was made and will soon be available to members of the BC Uilleann Pipers' Society.

	Tom Kinahan playing Eric Reiswig's BC Childress set, and Eric with Tom's Froment set.		The whole lot of us with Martin (seated).  (L to R) Rob Moore, Eric Reiswig, Ed McIllwaine, Tom Kinahan, Greg Schnider, Kier McMillan
	Kier McMillan from Victoria playing his O'Grady half-set.

Spring Meeting - March 11, 2000, Cobble Hill, B.C.

A meeting of the Uilleann Pipers' Society was held at Rob Moore's place in Cobble Hill. This meeting was well attended with four new members showing up.

Activities included a tour of Rob's workshop and a basic demonstration on a few of the steps involved in making a chanter. He showed us the use of the lathe and milling machine when making pipes. Eric Reiswig and Greg Schnider conducted classes on piping with Eric taking on the more experienced pipers and Greg getting the novices started out. The tunes worked on are here. Greg also gave a reed making demonstration and made a reed for one of Eric's chanters. 

	Greg Schnider (left) putting Tark Hamilton through his paces in the beginners' class.
	Tark Hamilton with his O'Grady half-set.		Gareth Hurwood and Sayward Stone at one of the classes.
	Rob Moore showing how to use a vertical milling machine to cut keyways for chanters and regulators.

 Hornby Island Celtic Festival - 2000

Swarm of Drones, August 18-19, 2000, UBC School of Music

A pipers' weekend gathering entitled A Swarm of Drones was organised in part by the society. It was by all accounts a great success. Club member Rob Moore, writing with a Northumbrian Smallpipes hat on submitted the following review.

	Walters, DIck Hensold and Phil Whie making a Swarm of Drones.		Eric Reiswig and John Walsh at the session following the concert.
	Another Swarm of Drones with (bottom to top) Tom Kinahan's Froment set, Greg Schnider's Moore set, and Eric Reiswig's Childress set.		The attendees. The main organizer, Rob MacDonald, is kneeling in the front row, third from left.

Fall Meeting - October 14, 2000, Langley, B.C.

The second Fall meeting of the Society was held on October 14, 2000 in Langley at the home of Greg Schnider. Piping, reedmaking and maintenance workshops were all well attended during the course of the day. The day wound up with a fantastic session at Dentry's Irish Grill in Vancouver.

A number of organisational changes were adopted and a new executive was formed

• Chairman/Web Page- Greg Schnider

• Secretary/Treasurer - Tom Kinahan

• Sponsorship - Tim Fanning

• Newsletter - Derek Darling

• Vancouver Island Representative - Bill Poppy

	A piping workshop with (L-R) Kevin McEvoy, Tom Kinahan, Peter Lewis, Derek Darling and Bill Poppy teaching.		Brian Gallagher, Tim Fanning and Eric Rreiswig at a piping workshop.
	Obligatory group photo (L to R): (Standing) Rob Moore, Eric Reiswig, Tom Kinahan, Tim Fanning, John Walsh, Kevin McEvoy, Kate McAree, Bill Poppy (Kneeling) Greg Schnider, Chris McCollister		John Walsh teaching Seamus Ennis' version of

Pipemaking Workshop - February 3-4, 2001 Cobble Hill, B.C.

An excellent pipemaking workshop to make a number of practice sets for our pipes-for-loan program was hosted by Rob Moore in his Cobble Hill workshop.

	Rob Moore in his basement workshop.		Bill Poppy wrapping the tendon joints for the bag blowpipes. We found out that maple can sometimes be pretty porous to air.
	Jamie Long at the lathe.		Bill Poppy with his Neil O'Grady set. Rob Moore made the bass regulator for this set.
	Greg Schnider making reeds for the chanters.		Wally Charm with his Rogge set with Chris MacCollister in the background.
	Morris Wadds at the drill press preparing the paddles for bellows.		Greg Schnider playing his set made by Rob Moore and Eric Reiswig with his B.C. Childress set.
	Derek Darling silver soldering outlet tubes for the bellows.

Session with Tomas Standeven - May 2001, Burnaby, B.C.

Tomas Standeven's last visit to BC was in May 2002. The following pictures were taken at a session at Brian Gallagher's home.

	Tomas Standeven with his Anderson set.		Greg Schnider, Brian, Tomas and Mike
	Tomas and Mike Muldoon playing a few tunes on the flute.
	Brain Gallagher, Tomas and Mike.

 

Swarm of Drones - July 13 - 15, 2001, Vancouver, B.C.

The BC Uilleann Pipers' Society was proud to again be associated with the Swarm of Drones Alternative Bagpipe festival. Martin Nolan was the featured uilleann piper for workshops and concerts. See the Swarm of Drones website for more information.

Fall Meeting - November 24, 2001, Langley, B.C.

The Fall Meeting of the BC Uilleann Pipers' Society was held on November 24 at Greg Schnider's home in Langley. Watch here for details and pictures.

Spring Meeting - March 30, 2002, Cobble Hill, B.C.

The Spring 2002 meeting of the BC Uilleann Pipers' Society was held on the weekend of March 30. Rob Moore again hosted this event.

	Again with the group shot:		Greg Schnider and Bill Poppy trading tunes with Peter Lewis listening.
	Peter Lewis and Mike Muldoon during the piping lessons		Kier McMillan trying out Wally's set.
	Bill Poppy giving Tark Hamilton some pointers.		Robert Fraser trying out a set for the first time.
	Greg Schnider shows how to put backstitching into a tune.		Greg Schnider with his Lambe C set.
	Standing room only for David Daye's reed-making presentation.		Greg looking on as Wally Charm gives the C set a try.
	More reed-making.		The session afterwards.
	Funny enough, still more reed-making		More of the session.
	Rob Moore showing one of the many, many instruments he has made.

Spring Meeting - March 15-16, 2003, Cobble Hill, B.C.

The Spring 2003 meeting of the BC Uilleann Pipers' Society was held on the weekend of March 30. Rob Moore again played host. We had a special guest piping instructor Eoin Duignan. Eoin gave instruction on the pipes for the club and played at a house concert in the evening to a sold out house.  

	Eric Reiswig, Robert Common and Peter Lewis		Robert Common with his Hughes half-set.
	Obligatory group shot.		Eoin Duignan with his Leo Rowsome set.
	Greg Schnider, Rob Moore and Eric Reiswig in deep discussion about small bits of cane, string and brass.		Eoin with his low whistle.
	Eoin Duignan trying out Rob Moore's drone machine.		Eoin and Rick Bockner.

Workshop with Martin Nolan - October 9-10 2004, Cobble Hill

A piping workshop with Dublin based Piper Martin Nolan was held on the weekend of October 9-10 at Rob Moore's house in Cobble Hill. The workshop was well attended. Martin also played a house concert  in the evening.

Past Monthly Meeting Notices

The monthly meeting for November 2004 will be held on Sunday November 28 at Greg Schnider's home at 4526 220th Street in Langley. Phone Greg at 604-514-0883 for directions or more information. 

The meeting for December 2004 will be cancelled due to the Christmas holiday.

The meeting for January 2005 will be held on Vancouver Island on Sunday January 30 at Eric Reiswig's place 1476 Myrtle Ave in Victoria.

The meeting for February 2005 will be held in the Lower Mainland at  Tim Fanning's place: 4356 Collingwood. (604-732-3585). The meeting is scheduled for 1:00-5:00 on Sunday February 27.

 

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