2022 Festival Performances
Featuring uilleann pipes, Scottish smallpipes, border pipes, fiddle, whistles and more, Celtic Piping Club's ensemble of superb musicians performed a rich melting pot of Celtic and Australian pipe music at some Australian festivals in 2022. Lively jigs and reels were mixed with rare 18th century airs from Scotland and Ireland, curious dances from Scandinavia and contemporary music of a living tradition. Scroll down for details about the players, the set list, audience response and live footage compilations.
Festivals 2022 Showreel video
5 minutes, see the highlights
Festivals 2022 Full concert video
35 minutes, the full set list cut from across all the festival performances
Surround Sounds Festival
National Folk Festival
Thursday 14 - Monday 18 April 2022
Exhibition Park, Canberra ACT
Ngunnawal Country
National Celtic Festival
Meet the players
Oscar West : Artistic Director, mandolin, fiddle, whistle, Scottish smallpipes
Geoff Jones: Scottish smallpipes, border pipes, bodhran
Sarah Wade: Scottish smallpipes, sackpipa, concertina
Merran Moir: Scottish smallpipes, whistle
Matthew Horsley: uilleann pipes, whistle, accordion, snare drum
Sam Davies: uilleann pipes, whistle
Connor Hoy: uilleann pipes, flute
Jess Foot: fiddle, oboe
Flora Carbo: saxophone
Rhys Crimmon: guitar
Set List
Opening Set
Opening phrases
Drummond Castle jig (trad Scottish)
Dark Island air (trad Scottish)
Brenda Stubbert’s reel by Jerry Holland
European Set
Pruvan Polska (trad Swedish)
Bonnie Miller 3/2 hornpipe (trad English)
Hanter dro (trad Breton)
Song
Bonny Portmore song (trad Irish)
Australian Slow Reels Set
Henry Blood’s reel by Corey Henderson
Megumi’s Gift slow reel by Jack Brennan
Far from Home Set
Top Deck in Perth air by Murray Blair
Bells of Barbados march from William Ross Collection 1885
Karin & Rory’s Welcome strathspey by Merran Moir
The Toender Jukebox reel by Mairearad Green
Flat Pipes Set
An Paistin Fionn (trad. Air)
Sergeant Early’s jig from O’Neill’s 1001: The Dance Music of Ireland
Finale Set
Miss Fiona McClure Walker by Alexander “Sandy” Taylor Cameron
High Drive by Gordon Duncan
Audience Member Reflection
Our musical hibernation of the past few years is over, and we are now poking our heads out to see what our new environment has to offer.
LOOK NO FURTHER than the Celtic Piping Club! I have seen this collective of extraordinary talent at the National Folk Festival in Canberra and the National Celtic Festival in Port Arlington (2022) and they are an absolute delight!
The Celtic Piping Club is posse of multi-instrumentalists, each with their own distinct presence and credentials across our diverse music scene, that have come together through their common passion for reed-based instruments – with an emphasis on all things piping. I thought that I would need to be tied and anchored to my chair to attend a full performance of various piping and reed instruments. Instead, I was absolutely carried away by their carefully crafted and arranged music that spanned medieval times, dark tunes of the fairies and recently composed and highly evocative tunes by local musicians.
The group fluctuates around a core of 9 musicians and is led by our favourite Kiwi, the charming and whimsical Oscar West. Like all of the members of this group, the music of the Celtic Piping Club is wildly understated but completely uplifting.
As they close out their set, these pied pipers lure other musicians from the audience to stand with them on stage and play a rousing finale. You can feel the love for the music of the musicians and the appreciation of their performance by the audience – they simply fill your heart with vitality and joy!
If you are a promoter, book this band! If you are a punter, go and see The Celtic Piping Club - crawl over broken glass if you have to…just get there, immerse yourself and enjoy.
Chris Fitzgerald
Publican, The Corkman Irish Pub & The Last Jar
June 2022