About Me
A little background:
I always had a fascination with the bagpipes for as long as I can remember. As a child, my parents would take us to the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Scranton, PA (where I was born, raised and live) and was always excited to see and hear the pipers. Little did I know I would become one of them.
In 1998 I decided to learn the pipes. My determination and focus helped me to make a lot of progress in a very short period of time, and in 1999, I marched in my very first St. Patrick's Day parades. It was tough, but I was determined to stick with it. I kept working hard and practicing, learning new tunes and learning about this wonderfully complicated instrument.
I was further fascinated by the workings of the bagpipe. I learned to adjust and refine the tone and tuning to achieve the best sound the instrument was capable of, as it so often gets a bad rap if not tuned and played correctly.
My efforts paid off and I was rewarded with the position of tuning the pipe band for parades and performances. It is a job I took very seriously. It's very rewarding to hear the results of your work when the pipe band sounds very good. I have pipers from all over the area contact me for individual advice, tuning, and bagpipe setup. From time to time I host seminars on bagpipe setup and maintenance as well.
My daughter took an interest in the drumming side of things, and she has become a terrific snare drummer. Molly started to learn when she was only 6. Now, at 19, she plays at a lot of performances with me. It's a lot of fun to share our time together and it's special to see the smiles on people's faces when they learn that we are a father/daughter duo.
On a personal note, I am married with two children. I work full-time at a local school district, and I own a photo studio which has been in operation since 1989.
Music runs in our family. My wife is a vocalist, our son plays piano, and our daughter and I play pipes/drums and our dog barks along.
It's a fun, noisy house!!!