I was sent this email from Gay McKeon and thought I should pass it on.
Tommy.
Dear All,
I would be obliged if you would please advise me of the names, and if possible the contact details, of any good young pipers of promise who are progressing well (apart from yourselves of course!) who you have met at classes and festivals etc. NPU wants to ensure that all young pipers of potential are afforded as much opportunity as possible for mentoring, scholarships, recording and public performance.
Also please continue on an ongoing basis to advise of any young pipers that come to your attention from anywhere around the world.
Please share this with anyone who you think may also be able to assist in this regard.
there is a young lad named declan dillon,12 years,and plays well,he is going to be great!! you can hear on clips n snips,his dads e-mail is seandillon@yahoo.ie
It’s a great initiative. Could we have a little more information on the young pipers who would be admissible? More particularly, are we talking about young pipers just based in Ireland or is the NPU looking farther afield?
There are a few teenagers in Quebec city who are very keen on piping and who would love to take up the uilleann pipes. For several reasons, the price of pipes being one, they are prevented from doing so. As a result they tend towards the GHB and SSP.
NPU doesn’t say what they attend to do with such information. I can’t give any name without the piper’s agreement, and won’t ask him for agreement before I know exactly what kind of help NPU will provide.
You think NPU is building a good piper’s database so they can hire hitmen to take out the ones that are outside Ireland?
I understand the hesitation to pass along names without any solid ideas of what will hapen to them, but NPU’s a pretty reputable organization with good people watching over it. Pipers as a rule tend to be supportive of one another with a little good (and sometimes bad)-natured infighting now and again.
If you’re really worried, send an email to Gay and ask him if he can keep the information completely private excepting to offer help/scholarships/books/&c. I’m pretty certain this is what he had in mind anyhow.
Also, Peter, I agree that he’s looking for well-established young pipers and not people who are wanting badly to learn the pipes but for one reason or another cannot learn on them, but “wannabe” has a particularly negative connotation in the US so you may want to be conservative in throwing that label about. There’s nothing wrong with someone wanting to learn for the love of the music and instrument and not everyone can afford even the cheapest Daye set.
It wasn’t meant particularly negative although if you want something bad enough it’s not impossible to get started. There are pipes on-loan schemes for that sort of people. If they can afford to become members of piper’s clubs ofcourse. In the present situation there’s no shortage of aspiring pipers. And from that point of view I think it’s fair enough NPU are looking for those who are within the tradition, who are already playing, progressing well and have a proven commitment, to nurture and support them.
I’m sure that players < 20yrs old are pretty rare. This instrument is already so rare as it is. And in addition to that they must also be “of promise who are progressing well”.
There are now far more pipers than at any time in history, there are scores of young players and a lot of them are frightingly good at it. I realise you won’t get a lot of that in Delaware but where piping and the music live, you know, it’s different.
I wonder what the definition of “young” piper is, is early-mid twenties still young? Or is that too old to be nurtured and supported? Maybe young ends at 18?
Apparently I fit the chategory as I recieved a email from NPU asking if my details could be added too the list. Of course I said yes; what I’d like to know is who forwarded my details. There are only a few tutors in Australia and Ireland that I know of so that sort’of narrows it down.
If this message originated in the UK I would suspect another way to apply yet another special (stealth) tax as anyone who can afford a set of pipes obviously has too much money (in the eyes of our chancellor)
