Nate's workshop is located in Rockaway Beach, in New York City.

Some of his earliest influences came through recordings of the Chieftains and of Joe McKenna. After attaining a practice set of pipes made by Michael Brennan of East Lake, OH, Tim received introductory lessons from Michael Kilbane through the Academy of Irish Music in Cleveland, OH. He later received more advanced tuition from piper Kieran O'Hare, and attended influential workshops at Scoil Acla in 2002 with Ciaran O'Malley and Robbie Hannan.

He began teaching uilleann pipes at the Riley School of Irish Music in Cincinnati, OH while attending college at Xavier University. For several years Tim enjoyed performing at a wide array of venues around the mid-west, both independently and with Irish traditional groups Silver Arm and with the Cleveland-based Portersharks. He recorded albums with both groups, and appeared on The Road to Riley, a recording of Riley School faculty.

Driven by a desire to acquire a deeper understanding of the instrument, Tim devoted himself to making uilleann pipes after settling in Western New York in December 2006.

He is joined in this venture by Stephanie Cornelius, a mechanical engineer from Western New York, who has worked for more than 10 years developing mechanical & electronic control systems & software for automotive applications.

No stranger to the machine shop, Stephanie provides design & fabrication support, makes hand-stitched bags and bellows and is responsible for the key work.

Inspired by the great flute & fiddle player Peter Horan, she took up the fiddle in 2001, and the flute within the past 2 years. Her first exposure to the uilleann pipes was during a work assignment in the south of Germany, where she met pipemaker Andreas Rogge, and acquired her first practice set.

Together they work to produce sets of all configurations in their shop located 30 miles east of Buffalo.

They work with the traditional turnery woods associated with bagpipe making, such as ebony, the rosewoods, and boxwood. Brass and nickel silver are employed for the metal work. They have a great appreciation for pipes made by classic makers such as Leo Rowsome and the Taylor brothers, and have been influenced greatly through the invaluable guidance of a few modern masters.

"I needed a large-capacity bellows that would be a comfortable, dependable, efficient workhorse that would stand up to excessive wear and tear. The bellows Mike made for me is an outstanding piece of craftsmanship which is all of these things plus some. You simply cannot do better than a Mike Dow bellows."

- Jerry O'Sullivan - 2000

Please visit his web site at www.archcarving.com for more information.

Jerry Freeman is the world's only full time, professional penny whistle
tweaker. "Tweaking" a penny whistle is much like setting up a guitar or fiddle; it is the process of making fine adjustments and modifications to get the best possible performance from the instrument.

Jerry takes mass produced whistles (Generations, Feadogs, etc.) and adjusts the soundblade position, windway exit geometry, voicing chamber and tonebody to create affordable instruments that many consider not simply outstanding whistles for the modest cost, but outstanding whistles at any cost.

Jerry offers tweaked Generations in high G, high F, Eb, D, C and Bb, tweaked Feadogs in D, and his own creations, the widely acclaimed Blackbirds and Mellow Dogs.

Mellow Dogs are wide body whistles available in D and as a D/C set (one whistlehead with two tubes). Blackbirds are standard body whistles available in Eb, D and C. Both are noted for their pure drop authentic traditional voicings that favor a birdlike, sweet timbre in a very responsive, clean playing instrument.

For nearly 20 years he has played with the English piping trio The Goodacre Brothers, who have recorded two CDs. In 2000 Julian released his solo CD 'Pipemaker Calls Yer Tunes'. He is now gaining a growing reputation for his performances, talks and lectures. He currently lectures for the Piping Degree Course at The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Glasgow, Scotland.

Simon Hope RPT is the only smallpipe maker on the u.k. register of
professional turners and has been making SSP's for approx 5 years. He takes great pride in producing top quality looking AND sounding pipes! He works from his purpose build workshop at home set in the Essex country using modern gundrills for perfect bores and age hand turning skills. I look forward to meeting new friends at the pipers gathering!

Joseph Sampson is a harvester and distributor of California chanter cane. He sells cane primarily for dry/cold blown bagpipes such as Border pipes and Northumbrian pipes, but particularly specializes in Uilleann/Union pipe cane. All of the cane Joseph harvests is handpicked in the wild, from special locations throughout Southern California. He can provide chanter cane in all sizes ranging from 14 mm/0.55" to larger than 30 mm/1.18" in diameter.

In addition to harvesting and selling cane, Joseph is middle school math teacher, plays the Uilleann pipes & Irish Whistles, and is a part-time reed maker for his own pipes and a few others.

Joseph is located in beautiful HOT & sunny Bakersfield, California.

Connecticut's own wooden flute makers since 1974. Founded by Ralph Sweet; retired physics teacher, caller and teacher of contra and square dancing, fifer and drummer since 1946.

Specializing in Irish flutes, pennywhistles, low whistles, military fifes, baroque flutes, renaissance fifes, folk flutes, piccolos, walking stick flutes and tabor pipes. Featuring the revolutionary new WD Sweet professional model pennywhistle as well as books, CDs and other fine wooden instruments.

With over 5,000 books in stock, Monroe Bridge Books specializes in used and rare - Scottish, Irish, Welsh English and Gaelic Books ( as well as an extensive general stock). Their inventory can be found on-line at the website link listed above. They also provide lists and catalogs that are subject specific - upon request.

Will gladly open by appointment, if you are in the area.

Monroe Bridge Books is a proud member of MARIAB, the Massachusetts & Rhode Island Antiquarian Booksellers Association.