Tim Cummings, a native of Tennessee, began his musical studies at the age of 6 as a student of the piano. He took up the pipes at age 8, and piping has been his primary musical focus ever since. Tim has studied piping with Al MacRae, Sandy Keith, Scott MacAulay, and briefly with the faculty at the RSAMD and National Piping Centre in Glasgow.

He earned his undergraduate degree in Music Education (The College of Wooster, Ohio); and both a B.A. Honours degree in Ethnomusicology and an M.A. in Musicology (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand). During the 2002-03 school year, he was the Artist in Residence at The College of Piping in Summerside, PEI. While living in New Zealand, Tim was a member of the highly competitive Manawatu Scottish Pipe Band, and he continues to arrange much of their repertoire. He has also published several pieces and collections of piping music via Beithe Publishing.

Currently based in Vermont, Tim works as a private teacher, performer, arranger/composer, and publisher of piping and Celtic-related music. In his spare time, he enjoys clawhammer banjo, shape-note singing, the great outdoors, and causing a little mischief here and there.

Born in West Belfast, Northern Ireland, Uilleann Piper and whistle player Eamonn Dillon has toured and recorded both as a solo artist and with a varied group of performers, touring shows and bands.

Working between the U.S., Canada and Europe ,he has performed and recorded as a featured artist in both traditional, theatrical and mixed genre ensembles including Needfire, John McDermott (The Irish Tenors), Celtic Bridge, Sarah Packiam, Paloma Faith and King James, among others.

He first learned the tin whistle from his father, and from Tara Diamond before getting his first set of Uilleann Pipes made by the great master Sean McAloon, who mentored Eamonn while he was first starting out.

Eamonn is currently in pre-production on his new solo CD, featuring his sister, acclaimed fiddle player Roisin Dillon of Cherish the Ladies, and other guest musicians and vocalists.

Hensold’s Northumbrian piping is firmly grounded in traditional Northumbrian technique, but his playing cannot be considered strictly traditional, since he incorporates musical ideas from many of the styles he works in. Rather than taking the tradition as given, he imagines all the different ways the pipes can be played, given their unique characteristics, and uses all the techniques available to maximize expression and rhythmic drive. In fact, his playing is best characterized by imagination and creativity. He is also a prolific composer of music for the pipes.

A full-time free-lance musician, he specializes in the traditional music of Scotland, Ireland and Northumberland; Nordic folk music; early music; and Cambodian traditional music. He has released numerous CDs as a member of the groups Piper’s Crow, Way Up North, The New International Trio, the Lyra Baroque orchestra, and with Ruth MacKenzie’s Kalevala. His solo Northumbrian smallpipes CD Big Music for Northumbrian Smallpipes was released in 2007.

He also performs on the Medieval greatpipes, Scottish Highland pipes, säckpipa (Swedish bagpipes, recorder, seljefløyte (Norwegian willow flute), low whistle and traditional Cambodian reed instruments, and is much in demand as a sidemusician, composer/arranger, studio and theater musician. His recent theatre projects include work at the Guthrie Theatre, Children's Theater Company, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, and with Ruth MacKenzie's Kalevala and Snow Queen.

His new music credits include an appearance with the Greenville Symphony orchestra as soloist in “Cross Lane Fair”, a symphonic work featuring Northumbrian smallpipes. In 2006 he was awarded the prestigious Bush Artist Fellowship.

In 2002 EJ released an album entitled "The WIllow" with guitarist Gerry O'Beirne and fiddle player Rosie Shipley and the three of them did some touring as "The Willowband" for a while. In 2003 when Clandestine was to take a long hiatus EJ began turning Scottish small pipes with his amateur experience making and playing Uilleann pipe reeds as a guide.

EJ has been playing professionally with various groups at all kinds of festivals since 1991 and regularly attends informal jam sessions in his native Houston and in Asheville NC where he now lives. He works to encourage informal music and dancing at every opportunity and believes that playing music is an optimal part of a well balanced life.

EJ now plays around the country with the re-formed Clandestine and a new pipe and drum group called Teribus.

http://www.clandestineceltic.com
http://www.teribusmusic.com

Jamie is heralded as “One of North America’s finest practitioners of traditional Scottish music” (San Jose Mercury News) and “The next Alasdair Fraser” (Press and Post). The Asheville Citizen-Times writes, “One of the hottest fiddlers out there…this act has been turning heads wherever it plays.”

What sets Jamie’s music in a class by itself is the nuance, virtuosity, and musical craftsmanship he brings to an ancient art form. Simple Celtic folk melodies are transformed into epic tonal narratives which take the listener on an emotional journey from quiet melancholy to wild jubilation.

Jamie's accessible sound appeals to families, youth, seniors, and devotees of ethnic, jazz, and classical music.

The making of his trademark style began at the Victoria Conservatory of Music where he studied classical violin. Later he pursued careers as a professional symphony musician, recording studio artist, improvising violinist, and contra dance fiddler. But his passion for the haunting sounds of rural Irish and Scottish folk music eventually usurped all other preoccupations, and he has devoted himself exclusively to Celtic music ever since.

In 2002 Jamie won the U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Championship and subsequently embarked on a full time touring career which today includes over 120 engagements per year throughout the U.S. and Scotland.

Jamie now lives in Asheville, North Carolina and takes a keen interest in the musical and historical ties that connect his Appalachian home with the dispersion of Celtic peoples from their original homeland. He serves on the faculty of The Swannanoa Gathering, a summer institute for traditional arts and music.

His critically esteemed debut CD recording, Shades of Green, airs regularly on many NPR programs nationwide. Meanwhile,Zephyr In The Confetti Factory, his duo album with mandolinist Ashley Broder, won Best World Traditional Song in the 2007 Independent Music Awards Vox Populi.

Jamie has also collaborated on numerous television, film, and CD recordings, including Dave Matthews’ Some Devil, Warner Bros. Pictures’ Wild America, and WB-TV series Everwood.

Recent live performances include the Bijou Theatre (Knoxville), Wintergrass Festival (Tacoma), the Freight & Salvage (Berkeley), Swallow Hill Productions (Denver), Club Passim (Boston), The Fringe Festival (Edinburgh), the NBC Today Show, The West Coast Live radio show, and a private appearance for Her Majesty the Queen.

Andy began learning the pipes around 1987 having been introduced to the instrument by his father a year earlier. Both initially learned, and have continued to learn, under the patient guidance of Roland Lofthouse of Ryton, (himself a pupil of Jack Armstrong), for both technique and good taste, drawing from his vast repertoire of tunes from Northumberland, Scotland and Ireland. Before long, Adrian Schofield from Bolton showed an interest in the young Andy's playing, and it was from these two men that Andy has probably learned the most. It was Adrian who first introduced Andy to the excitement of the playing of Billy Pigg.

He considers himself very fortunate to have met and played with many of the great Northumbrian musicians spanning several generations and to have deepened his understanding of the music through their encouragement. To this end, the musical evenings held in the home of Annie Snaith proved both inspirational and invaluable to Andy. He would now attribute much of his style to Roland, Adrian, Billy Pigg and Tom Clough, although he has been influenced, directly and indirectly, by a host of other players. Andy won his first piping competition at the age of 10 and has gone on to become a regular winner at piping competitions around Northumberland. This has included an unprecedented 9 consecutive wins of the Northumbrian Pipers' Society Open Competition, although now he is more commonly found on the other side of the judges' table. He is also in demand as a teacher of the pipes having tutored on courses around the U.K. and also in the U.S.A. In addition to his adeptness at playing the pipes, Andy also makes them.

Andy joined well-known folk band Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies in 2002, but had worked with the band prior to his official joining by rehearsing and recording several tracks of the CD, Honesty Box. He had also stepped in as the fourth band member at numerous gigs during early Spring of 2002, including the Honesty Box Launch Party in Newcastle. Bringing a whole new dimension to the band, with his Northumbrian smallpipes, accordion and whistles, this multi-instrumentalist has quickly expanded from being a sought-after session player for the likes of Kathryn Tickell, to a valued member of a live performance band. The band have recently released a new album, Doolally, to much critical acclaim.

When not playing with the Bad Pennies, Andy plays with The Braykes, a lively jazz/funk/folk fusion band, and with Baltic Crossing, an acclaimed Finland/UK folk music collaboration. He also plays jazz piano and Irish Uilleann Pipes. He teaches the Northumbrian Smallpipes to a wide age range.

He is now based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK.

Ben Miller is a recent graduate of the music program at Saint Michaels College in Burlington, VT, where he also received the award of Outstanding Fine Arts Major in Music for the Class of 2011. During his undergraduate career, Ben focused primarily on bagpipe performance, music theory, and musicology, with a heavy interest in folk traditions. As part of his degree, he spent a term in Scotland as a visiting student to further his experience in this field. Over the course of this degree, Ben has written extensively on topics including the history and development of the Lowland bagpipes, as well as the evolution of dance music traditions in Scotland and Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

Originally from Upstate NY, he began studying the Highland Bagpipes at age eight. By age 12, he began studying the bellows-blown Scottish smallpipes and picked up the Border pipes a few years later. Ben has played with several competitive pipe bands during his career, including the internationally acclaimed Scotia-Glenville Pipe Band, who recently took third in the Juvenile division at the World Pipe Band Championship in Glasgow.

At age 18, Ben left the pipe band competition scene to pursue traditional Scottish and Cape Breton dance music. Since then, he has performed a number of concerts in the VT/NY area and has travelled extensively to Scotland, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breton to further his knowledge of this style. During his final year as an undergraduate, Ben completed a major thesis concerning the developing musical traditions of Scotland and Cape Breton. He is currently preparing to undertake a graduate degree in Highland Studies at the University of Edinburgh in the Fall of 2011.

Fin has gained a great reputation as a teacher of pipes, having completed four summer seasons teaching at the Gaelic College in Cape Breton. He has also taught at the Lowland and Border Pipers Society annual teaching weekend in Melrose and at The Piper Gathering, Vermont and other schools around the world.

He has now performed at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, Celtic Colours in Cape Breton, the Edinburgh International Festival and the William Kennedy Piping Festival, Armagh. He has played solo and with bands including, Dannsa who are gaining great respect in Scotland and abroad for their traditional and innovating dancing, the internationally renowened Cape Breton band, Slainte Mhath, and Scottish band Back of the Moon, winners at the Scottish traditional music awards 2003.

Jerry O'Sullivan has been widely hailed as America's premier uilleann piper. His reputation for technical and melodic mastery of the instrument, an Irish bagpipe known for its subtlety and expression, is unsurpassed in the United States, and is demanding considerable attention overseas. Jerry is also widely recorded on the tin whistle, the low whistle, the Highland bagpipes, and the Scottish smallpipes.

Jerry has appeared on more than 90 albums and has performed or recorded with artists such as The Boston Pops, Don Henley, Paul Winter, James Galway, Dolly Parton, The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, The Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Eileen Ivers, and many others. He was a featured soloist on Paul Winter's GRAMMY winning album, Celtic Solstice (Living Music, 1999). His first two solo albums, The Gift (Shanachie,1998), and The Invasion (Green Linnet, 1987) have both received critical acclaim, quickly finding their way to the top of a number of "best albums of the year" lists. Jerry has just recently released a new solo album, O'Sullivan Meets O'Farrell (Jerry O'Sullivan Music, 2005), which features music from the 200 year old O'Farrell tutor and tune collections. Jerry has also recorded a number of film soundtracks including From Shore to Shore, The Long Journey Home, Far and Away, Africans in America, and Out of Ireland, and has appeared on numerous television commercials.

Jerry has toured extensively in the United States and Europe and has even played as far afield as Japan and Israel. He has been a featured performer and instructor in numerous Folk Festivals, including: the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Milwaukee Irish Festival, the Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, Boston's Gaelic Roots Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the National Council for Traditional Arts National Folk Festival, and the Swannanoa Gathering in Asheville, North Carolina. He has performed at such reputable venues as New York's Lincoln Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and on the mall in Washington D.C. His symphonic concerts have included selections from John Williams Far and Away (performed and recorded with the Boston Pops), O'Sullivan's March from Rob Roy, Main Title Theme from Braveheart (both performed and recorded with the Boston Pops) Patrick Cassidy's The Famine Symphony (performed at the world debut at St. Patrick's Cathedral), Paul Winter's Pipes Peace (performed with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra), and excerpts from Titanic (performed with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra).
Born in New York City to an Irish-American mother and a father from Dublin, Ireland, Jerry first learned to play the Scottish highland pipes. During summer visits to family in Dublin, he learned the uilleann pipes from listening and asking questions to experienced players such as Peter Carberry, Matt Kiernan, Dan Dowd, Peter McKenna, Fergus Finnegan, Mick O'Brien, Gay McKeon, and others. In New York, uilleann piper Bill Ochs was a major help and inspiration to Jerry.

Jerry O'Sullivan is a gifted ambassador of the Irish uilleann pipes, maintaining the historic traditions and melodies of the instrument while expanding its range into new genres of music and media. His mastery of the instrument, traditional knowledge, versatility, and dedication to education truly make him America's premier uilleann piper.