Fin is gaining a great reputation as a teacher of pipes having just completed his third summer season of teaching at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton. He has also taught at the Lowland and Border Pipers Society annual teaching weekend in Melrose in the Scottish Borders.

He has now performed at the Celtic Connection Festival in Glasgow, Celtic Colours in Cape Breton and the Edinburgh International Festival. This year he was invited by the internationally renowned Cape Breton band, SLÀINTE MHATH,  to tour with them for two months in Scandinavia.

Chris acquired his first set, made by an amateur maker, on his fifteenth birthday, and set out to emulate the prominent pipers of the Twentieth Century. Formal tuition was difficult to come by, so he relied upon careful study of the classic recordings of the pipes and the mentorship of Anthony Robb. Within three years of taking up the instrument he became a regular Open competition winner. In 1979 Chris left Tyneside to study at Liverpool University. Northumbrian musicians being scarce on Merseyside, he began to participate in the thriving Irish music scene. This was not without its challenges, and he had to find means of incorporating the gracings essential to Irish music without compromising the characteristic closed fingering of the small pipes. His inclusion in a compilation recording of Irish musicians in North-West England is testimony to his success in this area! Chris also took the opportunity to learn the Highland pipes (with one eye on becoming a Border piper!), playing with the Liverpool Irish Pipe Band. Having completed his B.Sc. he trained as an occupational therapist and practiced in Chester until his return to Tyneside in 1989.

During the 1980s Chris maintained his interest in the classic piping repertoire in general, and the music of Tom Clough in particular. In 1986 he met Clough's son, himself a piper, and was able to increase his knowledge of the family and their music. In 1987 he recorded a CD of Clough's music; sadly this was never released.

Nowadays Chris is sought after as a piping tutor and has taught and performed in the USA, Canada, Europe and throughout the United Kingdom. In 2000 he was invited to perform at the Edinburgh Festival. He has appeared on numerous CDs and has played alongside musicians as diverse as rock star Peter Gabriel and Paddy Keenan of the Bothy Band. He did, eventually, become a player of Border pipes and Scottish small pipes, and has recently taken up the uilleann pipes. When not performing solo he can be heard playing for dancing with the Border Directors Ceilidh Band. Chris's first solo CD, "Time Out of Mind" was described as "unprecedented in the history of recorded Northumbrian piping" and he is currently collaborating on an album of Border piping.

In 1996, he became a professional musician, playing a variety of bagpipes and other folk instruments for folk clubs, dances, session work, and on street corners! Ian is now based near Seattle, Washington, and plays the Highland pipes, Northumbrian smallpipes, Scottish smallpipes, Northumbrian half-longs, Irish Uilleann pipes, as well as the whistle, flute and English concertina.

His past experience includes film and television work, and performances in the orchestral pieces "Orkney Wedding with Sunrise" (Maxwell-Davies) and "Celtic Requiem" (Tavener), Burns Nights at the British Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and folk festivals in England, Belgium and Germany. Over the years he has played in a variety of bands, including pipe bands and folk bands, performing in both dance and concert settings.

Ian has won medals at competitions for his performance of highland, half-long and Northumbrian pipes and has won the Northumbrian Pipers Society Competitions "Overseas Class" for the past three years.

In 1998 he produced his own recording, "The Empty Trough", which gives an excellent sample of the differing bagpipes of Britain and Ireland. In addition he has appeared on a number of other CDs including "A Zero Ore" by the Italian folk rock band Ned Ludd, the movie soundtrack of "Monk Dawson", "Boomshamarocka" by the Maryland based Fabulous Potato Heads Rhythm and Blues Ceili Band, and "Wonderful World" by Eva Cassidy.

Ian has recently launched the specialist online CD/DVD store "bagpipediscs.com" which is aimed at providing a wide range of piping recordings of all types from a single source.

Whilst a student in Dunedin, New Zealand Dan played pipes, bouzouki and banjo and sang in the Irish band Blackthorn. More recently he has been half of several musical duos in the Europe area including Musion with Chris Wright, The ASBO Duo with Cammy Robson in Edinburgh and The Boussens Which Project with Franck Delieuvin in Toulouse. He also occasionally plays with the Edinburgh based, Salsa Celtica, and the Puy Laurence based, Gartloney Rats and Doolin. In 1999, along with Jon Bews, Cameron Robson and Gavin Marwick Dan helped to form the Scottish trad power band Cantrip towards which much of his musical energy is focused

Besides playing for concerts Dan has been quite a successful dance piper and has performed for both Scottish Highland and Country dancing. Together with Jon Bews and pianist James Gray he has played for country dances and ceilidhs throughout Scotland and Europe either under the name Rantin’, Rovin’, Reelin’ or Captain Horne & His Hardened Seamen depending on the company and the occasion.

When not on the road or in the air Dan divides his time between Scotland and Marshfield, Vermont where he teaches Bagpipes at Vermont Institute of Celtic Arts.

Barry Shears, born in Glace Bay, Cape Breton, NS, is an acknowledged expert on the history of traditional piping in NS and its intrinsic connection to the Gaelic language, music and culture. An accomplished musician, Barry has performed at concerts and festivals throughout North America, as well as in Scotland and Europe, a highlight of which was a live to air broadcast on Radio France where, along with other well known CB musicians - John Morris Rankin of the Rankin family, violinist Jerry Holland and guitarist David MacIsaac, the unique, uplifting and wonderful sound of Cape Breton music was introduced to a wide European audience. His own CD, 'A Cape Breton Piper' is his tribute to this traditional, Gaelic- based piping style and has been very well received, not only by lovers of bagpipe music but to fans of all forms of Celtic music. Barry is also a composer of pipe tunes and, along with winning third prize in a world-wide piping composition contest sponsored by the famous Highland single malt scotch producer Grant's Distillery on its 100th anniversary, his work has appeared in books and recordings of other Celtic musicians. In addition, Barry has played the role of a piper in the made for television movie Baby with Farrah Fawcett, Keith Carradine, and Jean Stapleton; performed and arranged the bagpipe music for the critically acclaimed Canadian movie Margaret's Museum starring Helena Bonham Carter.

Originally a competitive piper, Barry has won the Champion Supreme trophy in NS an unrivaled 6 times and holds a Pipe Major Certificate from the Canadian Armed Forces as well as senior teaching certificates from the College of Piping in Glasgow, Scotland. However his passion for the last 20 years has been to interview and record the last of the traditional style pipers in NS and to share their music and stories with others. In addition to teaching and performing this piping style at workshops throughout North America, he has authored 3 books on traditional pipe music in NS with pictures of the pipers and written settings of many of the tunes they played. He holds a Masters degree from Saint Mary's University in Halifax based on his work on this subject and a fourth book on the history of traditional piping in NS, published by Cape Breton University, will be released in the Spring of 2008.

Tom Creegan grew up in Dublin learning in one of the best environments possible, the Pipers' Club in Thomas Street. He played extensively in Europe and Canada before moving to Seattle where he fell in with a bad crowd, joining the Irish Pipers’ Club, then under the helm of Denis Brooks. Tom learned a lot from Denis of the depth and breadth of the tradition, while listening repeatedly to piping 78’s spun at LP speed.

Tom was a founding member of, and played for years with the scourge of the left coast, The Suffering Gaels. In that time, he was also lucky enough to play with some greats of the music like Kevin Burke, Micheál O'Domhnaill and Johnny Cunningham. He is now in a band called Crumac alongside fiddler Dale Russ.

He has many years of teaching experience, first in Dublin, and later in Seattle with Cumann na bPíobairí (Irish Pipers’ Club), as well as at many festivals and schools. He continues to live in Seattle along with Lisa, Dermot and Niall, and currently serves as president of the Irish Pipers Club, as well as editor of the club’s newsletter, The Pipers’ Review.

Tom’s pipes are a set in D made by Leo Rowsome. They were made in the mid 50’s for Ivan Donaldson, a fisheries biologist in Stevenson, Washington, and were lying fallow for many years when Ted Anderson rescued them, along with a Taylor set, and brought them to California. Very fortunately for Tom, Ted let him have the set, and they subsequently returned to the suitable climes of the Pacific Northwest.

Martin grew up learning traditional Irish music in his native county Monaghan. He learned the pipes from his cousin Tiarnan O’ Duinnchinn of Armagh Pipers Club. He was also heavily influenced by Monaghan piper/pipemaker Eamon Curran who made the chanter Martin presently plays. In his teenage years, he competed successfully in solo and ensemble competitions at Ulster and All-Ireland level. He has performed many times on radio and TV broadcasts in Ireland and the States. He has featured at many music festivals in Europe and the U.S.A. such as Festival Interceltique L’Orient and Milwaukee Irish Fest. His solo debut recording “Uilleann Pipes and Whistles – Traditional Music from County Monaghan” met with much widespread critical and audience acclaim. He currently tours extensively with various groups including world-renowned show ‘Riverdance’, but also spends much of his time performing, teaching and recording in the New York city region.

Bill Ochs has been called a "central figure in the renaissance of the tin whistle" by National Public Radio's All Things Considered and "the leading tin whistle teacher in North America" by New York's Irish Voice newspaper. He has devoted over thirty years to playing and teaching the instrument.

Ochs is author of The Clarke Tin Whistle handbook, now in its seventeenth printing with over 235,000 copies in print. He is producer of Micho Russell's Ireland's Whistling Ambassador, and co-producer of Cathal McConnell's Long Expectant Comes At Last, both of which were nominated for "Best Celtic Album of the Year" in the NAIRD Indie Awards.

Ochs also plays the Irish uilleann pipes, which he learned from master pipers Andy Conroy, Pat Mitchell and Tom Standeven in Ireland and the U.S. Ochs's piping studies in Ireland were supported by a 1976 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. His piping and tin whistle playing can be heard on the Rounder CD Light Through The Leaves.

Ochs's performing credits include playing for José Quintero's Broadway production of A Touch of the Poet, Pilobolus Dance Company's Broadway début, the soundtrack for Bob Rafelson's film Mountains of the Moon and the première of Wind by Eiko and Koma at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. He was also piper in the original touring lineup of The Green Fields of America, which included Liz Carroll, Jack and Charlie Coen, Michael Flatley, Sean McGlynn and Mick Moloney.

Ochs has written on Irish music for New York Magazine, Sing Out, The Pipers' Review and other publications. He is currently writing a book on the music of Micho Russell. He lives in New York City where he teaches at The Irish Arts Center.

1. Solo instrumentalist/vocalist/actor: arts centres, festivals, radio, television, recordings (French and English traditional music, new compositions).
2. Collaborative performer: with Simon Poulter (computer art), Diana Winkfield (interactive art), Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the Heart / Deep Space (world music, dub-reggae/ambient-trance), The Albion Band (folk-rock), The Cock & Bull Band (folk dance-fusion), Les Fêtes Galantes, Folies Bergères (baroque-folk), Gabriel Yacoub (new and traditional French music), Ex-Cathedra, Palladian Ensemble, Chalemie (baroque/Commedia dell’Arte), Tractatus, ParallèlesMatthew Spring and Sara Stowe (contemporary), Trading Faces (mime/mask).
3. Musical Director: theatre, special events, Dance & drones records.
4. Composer/arranger/writer: commissioned, performed and recorded works, radio programmes, playwright.
5. Researcher/publisher: French and English Folk, Popular and Early music for drone instruments.