Northumbrian Smallpipes Weekend

The Northumbrian Smallpipes weekend offers a enjoyable opportunity to develop technique and repertoire with a variety of workshops, sessions, plus an informal performance from the tutors. You’ll work in groups according to ability level, with some optional sessions too, allowing you the opportunity to work with all tutors over the course of the weekend. Some music will be available in advance, for workshops that require it.

Once again, you’ll be able to make a long weekend of it and book an additional night of B&B on Sunday night for just £65 per person (includes supper).

Who is it for?

This popular workshop weekend is designed to give everyone from beginners and improvers to intermediate and advanced level players a thoroughly enjoyable opportunity to develop their abilities, technique and repertoire.

The Team

Andy May was introduced to the smallpipes by his father Stan, later learning from Roland Lofthouse and Adrian Schofield, and from studying the recordings of Billy Pigg and Tom Clough. Through the 90s Andy entered many piping competitions and studied music at the University of York with the pipes as his chosen instrument. Andy has been a full-time musician since 2002, with the Andy May Trio, UK/Finnish/Danish ensemble Baltic Crossing, and with North-East band Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies. Andy is a notable pipemaker, learning much from his father, and also Colin Ross, and teaches on the folk music degree course at Newcastle University.

Pauline Cato is one of the leading exponents of the Northumbrian Pipes. She took up the pipes at the age of thirteen and over the next few years won all the major competitions for the instrument. She has been a professional musician since 1993 and has performed all over the world – both solo and in a duo with fiddler Tom McConville. Pauline’s style is traditional, but she is also well known for expanding the repertoire of the pipes and is often in demand for new projects.

Chris Ormston was given his first set of pipes on his 15th birthday and nine months later won the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society Junior Class. Within three years he had won every Open competition in the county. Early in his piping career he acquired a taste for the classic repertoire of the pipes, with a particular interest in the music of the Clough family. Chris has collaborated with the NPS Society in the publication of two collections: ‘The Clough Family of Newsham’ (2000) and ‘The Clough Family Tunebook’ (2012). In 2011 Chris was honoured to take possession of ‘Young’ Tom Clough’s pipes, a Reid set gifted to Tom by his grandfather.

Iain Gelston took up his father’s smallpipes at the age of 21 in 1988 and, under the guidance of Adrian Schofield, won his first piping competition the following year. In 2011, Iain took up the border pipes and went on, entirely self taught, to win every Open competition in Northumberland and Scotland over the next few years. He now plays smallpipes and border pipes regularly, both solo and in the trio The Grand Assembly alongside flautist Trish Winter and fiddler Rachael Hales, concentrating primarily on the 18th and early 19th century piping repertoire of northern England and Scotland. Iain has published two volumes of his own compositions and features playing pipes and bouzouki on the LP “Drive Away Dull Care” by Tyneside folk band Lowp.