This was supposed to be in the current Voice. Because of editor error it did not appear. The Voice Southwest Branch Report Summer 2014 This has been a busy spring season in the Southwest Branch, and we have more events scheduled for the remainder of the year. The San Antonio Highland Games were held on April 5 and 6, 2014. This year the 13 contestants competed on Saturday April 5 or Sunday April 6, according to their specific grade. After each day of competition, the solo piping judge, Nancy Tunnicliffe, held a mini seminar to discuss anything the pipers wanted to cover. The Pipers of the Day for each grade were David Daniel, Grade I; Lori Waters, Grade II; Garrett Stewart, Grade III; Blake Harrington, Grade IV SR and Drei Richardson, Grade IV JR. Lyon College in Batesville hosted the annual Arkansas Scottish Festival April 11-13. The weekend kicked off on Friday evening with the third annual, “Celtic Concert,” featuring the Lyon College Pipe Band, Fox Blossom Venture, solo piping performances, Highland and Irish dancing, singing and poetry reading. The piping and drumming solo contests on Saturday morning were well attended with contestants from Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado and Idaho as well as those from Arkansas. The Grade 2 piping was a particularly good field, being won overall by Fred Kiffer. The band contests in the afternoon were won by Wolf River Pipe Band from Memphis in Grade 4, and St. John’s Northwestern Military Academy band visiting from the MWPBA taking honors in Grade 5. ASF hopes to increase band prize money and travel money in the coming years, and to continue to provide an attractive competition venue for drummers and pipers in the southwest region. Next up on the calendar were the Houston Celtic Festival Highland Games in Houston, TX, held on April 26-27. There were 22 solo competitors in drumming and piping, with numerous bands competing in QMM, MSR and Medley events. We are so glad this festival has returned, as it is always well run and well attended! During the week of June 15-20, Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas will hold its annual Celtic Arts Summer School. They have a world class list of instructors this year! Piping instructors include Willie McCallum, Bruce Gandy and Jimmy Bell. Jon Quigg will be the bass/tenor and snare drumming instructor, and Tim Britton will lead classes in uilleann pipes, whistle, flute and reed-making. Four classes will be held each day. Both on-campus and day rates are available, plus all students under 18 get a discount, with discounts for groups of three or more from the same band. This is a great way to get a boost in your piping and drumming skills, and it is an intense week of learning! For more information, contact Jimmy Bell at [email protected] am attaching a combined invoice for the last few Voices. I apologize for the billing delay to one and all. The Red Stick Regional solo piping and drumming competition will be held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on July 23, 2014. This year’s piping judges will be Ed Krintz and Iain Macey. Ed Best will judge all midsection and snare drumming events, as well as hold an afternoon drumming workshop. All competition events except Grade V will be sanctioned by EUSPBA, including all drumming events. More information and registration forms can be found at csbr.org, or contact Rosemary John at [email protected] Mark your calendars now for the Southwest Branch AGM, to be held on Saturday, September 6 at noon at the Irish House in New Orleans, Louisiana! We hope to Livestream the meeting, and will get more information out to the membership via email as the date gets closer. The position of treasurer, currently held by Patrick McLaurin, is up for election. We plan to use the electronic voting process again this year, as it worked so well (and saved over $200 in printing/mailing expenses) last year. Members of the Southwest Branch are invited to submit proposals to be presented at the associations AGM in November no later than 2 weeks prior to the branch AGM(i.e., by August 23rd). Please submit your proposals and ideas for branch activities to [email protected]. The Austin Piping and Drumming Competition will be held in Austin, TX, on October 11th, with judges Ed Neigh, Patrick Regan and Andrew Hoinacki . There will be some great door prizes for competitors! Solo competitors in grades 1-5 are welcome, and well also be offering full band, mini-band and quartet competitions as well. For more about the competition, contact Lori Waters at lswaters@juno. November 15 will see the return of the Louisiana Renaissance Festival EUSPBA sanctioned Piping competition, held in Hammond, Louisiana. More details to come later in the year. Best wishes to you all for a great summer! Rosemary John Southwest Branch secretary
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 19:27:47 +0000
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