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“Pipes of Christmas” Concerts
Return for 15th Joyous Season
Concert to Feature World
Premieres by Scottish Composers
The Pipes of Christmas will celebrate its fifteenth season
with performances in New York and New Jersey this December.
The holiday favorite, produced by the Clan Currie Society,
opens on Saturday, December 14 at the Madison Avenue
Presbyterian Church, located at 921 Madison Avenue (at 73rd
Street) with performances at 2 and 7PM. The concert moves
across the Hudson River on Sunday, December 15 to Central
Presbyterian Church located at 70 Maple Street in Summit, NJ
for a 2PM performance.
For those weary of the ceaseless stream of secular holiday
music from department stores to TV, the Pipes of Christmas
offers a spiritual and traditional take on the season that
connects concertgoers to the holiday in a fresh, meaningful
way. The show features tunes such as O Come, O Come
Emmanuel, Joy to the World, and Amazing Grace,
all performed live on pipes and drums, harp and fiddle, and
organ and brass. Not only does the performance define
Christmas cheer, but also it inspires those of Celtic
descent to retrace and reconnect to their ancestry.
The concert presents the music of Christmas accompanied by
readings taken from the Celtic literature of Scotland,
Ireland, and Wales. Featured performers include James
Robinson from the film “Braveheart,” New England fiddle
champion Paul Woodiel, “Riverdance” uilleann piper and
flutist Christopher Layer, Gaelic Mod champion harpist
Jennifer Port of Golspie, Scotland, and the Pipe Major Kevin
Ray Blandford Memorial Pipe Band from Redlands, CA.
The concert will also feature the world
premier of "Lullaby for a Prince," specially commissioned
to mark the birth of HRH Prince George of Cambridge. The
piece is written by Scottish composer Steve Gibb of
Inverness, Scotland. Concert-goers will recall Gibb’s
beautiful tune, “Balmoral Snow,” which had its World
Premiere at the 2012 concerts to mark HM Queen Elizabeth’s
Diamond Jubilee.
The 15th annual edition of the Pipes of Christmas
will feature a
newly-commissioned lullaby composed in recognition of the birth of
HRH Prince George of Cambridge.
There will also be a new work featured by a music student of
Edinburgh Napier University as part of the university’s
Christmas
Composition Contest.
Honorary Chairs for the 2013 concerts are
acclaimed Scottish writer Alexander McCall Smith author of
the highly successful “No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency”
series and Mark Standish, Co-Group Head, Capital Markets and
Investor & Treasury Services, Royal Bank of Canada.
Alexander McCall Smith
Mark Standish
Proceeds from the concert support an extensive music
scholarship program which includes annual gifts to the
National Piping Centre and the Royal Conservatoire of
Scotland (both located in Glasgow,) the Gaelic College of
Nova Scotia and Lyon College in Batesville, Arkansas. The
Clan Currie Society also sponsors the US National Scottish
Harp Championship, the Children’s Literature Prize at the
Royal National Mod and an annual academic research prize at
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s Gaelic college on the Isle of
Skye.
The Society also produces the Harp Glen – a festival of the
Scottish harp – at the Seaside Highland Games in Ventura,
CA, and participates in Scottish Highland Games and
Festivals in the US, Canada and Scotland.
Commenting on the
Society’s music scholarship program, stage and screen star
Alan Cumming said, “I am delighted that proceeds from the
Pipes of Christmas will result in these important gifts
which ensure that the future of Scottish culture is safer
with these generous scholarships.”
An experience that has become a tradition for many can be a
special event for anyone. As cool weather arrives, tune into
the holiday spirit and prepare to be inspired by the Pipes
of Christmas.
Named one of New York City’s “Top Ten” holiday events, the
concert is made possible by a generous gift from Edinburgh
Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland, Royal Bank of Canada
(RBC) Capital Markets and the Grand Summit Hotel in Summit,
NJ.
The 2013 concerts will be dedicated to the memory of
Priscilla Campbell of New York City. Campbell, who died last
February after a long bout with cancer, was a leading force
behind the NY Caledonian Club and the NY Scottish Pipes and
Drums.
Tickets Available
Now
General admission
tickets start at $50 and are available via mail order. A
downloadable ticket order form can be found on the concert’s
website at
www.pipesofchristmas.com . Tickets for the NY concert
may also be purchased online through SmartTix at
www.smarttix.com
or by phone at (212) 868-4444. Reserved
patron seats are available at both venues.
About “The Pipes of Christmas”
Since making its debut in 1999, The Pipes of Christmas has
played to standing room only audiences. Now a cherished
holiday event, the concert provides audiences with a
stirring and reverent celebration of the Christmas season
and the Celtic spirit. Audience-goers return year after
year to experience the program, many reporting that the
Pipes of Christmas has become part of their family’s annual
Christmas tradition.
The concert has been
lavished with critical acclaim. In his review for Classical
New Jersey Magazine, Paul Somers wrote, “The whole evening
was constructed to introduce gem after gem and still have a
finale which raised the roof. In short, it was like a well
constructed fireworks show on the Glorious Fourth. The
Westfield Leader described the concert as “a unique sound of
power and glory nowhere else to be found.”
About the Clan
Currie Society
The Clan Currie Society, based in Summit, NJ and Edinburgh,
Scotland is an international, non-profit cultural and
educational organization. It is the preeminent
Scottish-American cultural society in preserving and
promoting Highland heritage at Scottish Games, ethnic
festivals, as well as community groups and classrooms. The
Society has over 2,000 members worldwide that gather via the
Society’s website and at special events and clan gatherings.
The Society was originally formed in Glasgow, Scotland in
1959 to further the knowledge and appreciation of the
MacMhuirich (pronounced MacVurich) Bardic dynasty.
The MacMhuirichs served for over 700 years as professional
poets to the Lords of the Isles and later to the MacDonalds
of Clanranald among other prominent Highland clans and
families. The Red Book of Clanranald, one of Gaelic
Scotland’s literary treasures, was penned by successive
generations of the MacMhuirich family.
Today, the Society is a respected producer of programs and
events to honor Scotland’s rich culture and heritage. The
Society’s signature events include The Pipes of Christmas,
the annual observance of Tartan Day on Ellis Island – the
largest attended Tartan Day event in the world, and the
annual MacMhuirich Academic Symposium. The Society is also a
founding member of the NY Tartan Week Alliance with
oversight for many of the anchor events of Tartan Week
including, Whisky Live, From Scotland With Love, and Tartan
Day on Ellis Island.
To commemorate the 10th annual observance of
Tartan Day on Ellis Island, the Society commissioned and
launched the Ellis Island Tartan in April 2011. The tartan
is designed primarily for all Americans whose ancestors came
to the United States through Ellis Island. The Society’s
growing scholarship program provides financial support for
students wishing to further their studies in music, poetry,
and Gaelic history.
The Society has spearheaded the construction of two
permanent clan monuments in Scotland. A MacMhuirich Memorial
Cairn has been built adjacent to the 15th century
ruins of Bale nam Bàrd, the Chief Bard’s home at Stilligarry
on the Island of South Uist. A carved stone, commemorating
the bard Lachlan Mòr MacMhuirich, has been installed at
Makars Court alongside the Scottish Writers Museum in
Edinburgh.
Clan Currie is an outstanding producer of exhibitions and
documentary films. Past exhibitions have included “The Life
and Legacy of John Muir,” “Tartan – Scotland’s Enduring
Icon,” and “Loyalty and Rebellion: The Jacobites and
America.” The Society received one of its many awards for
video production excellence for “The Crafter’s Song”, a
documentary film narrated by Cliff Robertson.
The Arms of the Society were granted by the Court of the
Lord Lyon, Edinburgh, Scotland on June 30, 2006. The star,
or mullet, is a heraldic symbol frequently found on
individual Currie family coats of arms in Scotland. The
thistle wreath, or chaplet, represents the
international community the Society has created in
“promoting Scottish heritage in general and Clan Currie
heritage in particular, involving domestic and international
matters.”
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Photo: The Kevin Ray Blandford Memorial Pipe Band of
Redlands, CA returns to the NY area for three performances
of the Pipes of Christmas this December. Photo by Warren
Westura.
Photo: The 15th annual edition of the Pipes of
Christmas will feature a newly-commissioned lullaby composed
in recognition of the birth of HRH Prince George of
Cambridge.
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